
APPLETONS' HOME 
'7\ READING BOOKS 





J 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



LM. 



Chap,,.r?... Copyright IS'O.,.. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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appletons' Ibome IReabing Boofts 

EDITED BY 
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. 

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 

DIVISION I 

Natural History 




ABALONES. 



1, 3, 4, Cerianthus membranicus— different varieties. 2, Shell and living animal, 
Haliotis tuberculata. 5, 10, Actinia equina. 6, Actinia cari. 7, Empty shell of 
Haliotis rufescens. 8, Haliactis bellis. 9, Eloactis mazelii. 



APPLETONS' HOME READING BOOKS 



THE HALL OF SHELLS 



BY 

MRS. A. S. HARDY 

AUTHOR OF THREE SINGERS 




NEW YORK 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1897 



Qiaos' 
M2^ 



Copyright, 1897, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 




f* 



INTEODUCTION TO THE HOME EEADING 
BOOK SEKIES BY THE EDITOK. 



The new education takes two important direc- 
tions — one of these is toward original observation, 
requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught 
him at school by his own experiments. The infor- 
mation that he learns from books or hears from his 
teacher's lips must be assimilated by incorporating it 
with his own experience. 

The other direction pointed out by the new edu- 
cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of 
school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer- 
sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox- 
ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by 
lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted 
by experts who also lay out the course of reading. 
The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes 
a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly 
number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The 
teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre- 
scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, 
commentary, or catechism to aid the members. 

Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential 
basis of this great movement to extend education 



vi THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

beyond the school and to make seK-culture a habit 
of life. 

Looking more carefully at the difference between 
the two directions of the new education we can see 
what each accomphshes. There is first an effort to 
train the original powers of the individual and make 
him seK-active, quick at observation, and free in his 
thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the 
reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the 
race, to make the child or youth a participator in the 
results of experience of all mankind. 

These two movements may be made antagonistic 
by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as 
it does the precious lesson of human experience, may 
be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of 
conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no 
stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be 
memorized without being understood. On the other 
hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated 
at the expense of his social well-being — his originality 
may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. 
If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to 
trust only his own senses^ to cling to his own opinions 
heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- 
paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and 
is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. 

It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the 
knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is 
aggregated from the experience and thought of other 
people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil 
with material which he can not use to advantage. 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. yii 

Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no 
space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of 
uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity 
in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, 
in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is 
the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- 
ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- 
tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- 
retical. The very persons who declaim against the 
book, and praise in such strong terms the seK-activity 
of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons 
who have received their practical impulse from read- 
ing the writings of educational reformers. Yery few 
persons have received an impulse from personal con- 
tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- 
ber that have received an impulse from such books as 
Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Eousseau's 
Emile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis 
W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, Gr. Stanley 
Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- 
tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- 
ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, 
Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin. 

The new scientific book is different from the old. 
The old style book of science gave dead results where 
the new one gives, not only the results, but a minute 
account of the method employed in reaching those re- 
sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- 
covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, 
a sociologist. The books of the writers above named 
have done more to stimulate original research on the 



viii THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

part of their readers than all other influences com- 
bined. 

It is therefore much more a matter of importance 
to get the right kind of book than to get a living 
teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the 
same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of 
discovery and the methods employed, is a book 
which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- 
periments described and get beyond these into fields 
of original research himself. Every one remem- 
bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, 
which exercised a wide influence in changing the style 
of books on natural science, causing them to deal 
.with method more than results, and thus to train 
the reader's power of conducting original research. 
Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has 
stimulated adventure and prompted young men to 
resort to the border lands of civilization. A library 
of home reading should contain books that stimulate 
to self -activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The 
books should treat of methods of discovery and evo- 
lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of 
the law of evolution. Each and every being in the 
world is now explained by the process of development 
to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on 
all the others by illustrating the process of growth in 
which each has its end and aim. 

The Home Reading Books are to be classed as 
follows : 

First Division. Natural history, including popular 
scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix 

scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of 
study in the district school course which corresponds 
to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant 
lands; special writings which treat of this or that 
animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- 
thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- 
ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this 
class. 

Second Division, Whatever relates to physics or 
natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or 
water or light or electricity, or to the properties of 
matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic 
or inorganic — -books on these subjects belong to the 
class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- 
called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of 
organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. 

Third Division. History and biography and eth- 
nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and 
especially to the social life of the nation, and to the 
collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that 
one gives to another through commerce in times of 
peace; books on ethnology relating to the manners 
and customs of savage or civilized peoples ; books on 
the primitive manners and customs which belong to 
the earliest human beings — books on these subjects be- 
long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu- 
man will, not merely the individual will but the social 
will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third 
class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on 
forms of government and laws, and what is included 
under the term civics or the duties of citizenship. 



X THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- 
cludes more especially literature and works that make 
known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, 
painting, architecture and music. Literature and art 
show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, 
and aspirations, and they show how these feelings 
lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- 
partment of books is perhaps more important than 
any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches 
a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- 
derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to 
action. 

To each book is added an analysis in order to aid 
the reader in separating the essential points from the 
unessential, and give each its proper share of atten- 
tion, 

W. T. Haeeis. 

Washington, D. C, November 16, 1896. 



PKEFACE. 



The changing greens of the ocean, the wim^ 
pie of its waters when at peace, abide among 
the pleasantest memories of my early childhood. 
Glimpses into the sea, as pictured by Fouque, 
still have fascinations surpassing fact or fiction 
of these later days. 

This little book is published with the hope 
that it may lead to a fuller study of some of 
the most interesting and most beautiful crea- 
tions in Nature. Books upon marine shells, 
either not too expensive or too learned for com- 
mon use, are few ; hence it is hoped that this 
little volume may help to awaken an interest 
in the sea and its treasures, which can but grow 
with the years and afford an ever- widening and 
deepening source of delight and of profit. 

Pearls let slip from their broken string, led 
— in the story— to the hidden casket. So may 

xi 



xii THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

these simple studies be like bits of pearly 
wampum, leading to a thesaurus wherein is a 
treasure trove. 

Mes. a. S. Haedy. 

Unionville, Ohio, July, 1897, 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — Four people and the hall of shells . . 3 

II. — The mermaid's tea service 13 

III. — Purpuras. — Murexes 27 

IV. — Microscopic shells 33 

Y. — Ianthina. — Tritonia 37 

VI. — Sea secrets 43 

VII.— A Portuguese man-of-war. — The Medusa fam- 
ily 51 

VIII. — Pearls. — Mother-of-pearl . . . . .61 
IX. — Flowers of the sea. — Story of the mermaid's 

lace . . 73 

X. — The Argonaut.— The Nautilus .... 83 

XI. — Rocked in the cradle of the deep ... 93 

XII. — Gay, sad Scheveningen 99 

XIII. — An ancient family 109 

XIV.— Barnacles . . 117 

XV.— A SEA fan and a sea parable .... 123 
XVI. — A STORM. — Razor fishes. — Byssus spinners. — 

Stone eaters. — Lighted tombs. . . . 135 

XVII.— Olives 145 

XVIII. — Growth of shells 155 

XIX.— *' Things unreck'd of" 163 

XX.— Trouble 169 

xiii 



LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FACING 
PAGE 



Abalones . . . . . . "". . Frontispiece 

Listening to the smooth-lipped shell ; Triton variegatus . 19 

Pilgrim wearing his badge of knighthood .... 22 

The legend of the Tyrian dye 28 

The comb of pearl 29 

*' One-seated shallops whose boatmen have departed " . .51 

Hydroids and jelly-fish 56 

Pearl-producing shells . . . . . . . .64 

The mermaid's lace . . .78 

The argonaut 84 

Scheveningen shell-gatherer 106 

A sea lily Ill 

Fishing for sea cucumbers in the Philippine Islands ; Holo- 

thuridae 113 

Barnacles 119 

A fan gorgon ; Hermit crab 131 

lanthina communis, or violet snail, with float supporting 

eggs ; Patella vulgata ; Empty shell of lanthina ; Ensis 

ensis, or razor shell 139 

Conus textile ; Conus imperialis ; Oliva scripta ; Oliva por- 

phyrea; Phasianella ventricosa ; Murex princeps . . 151 

XV 



ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS, 

WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY, 



The following" paragraphs are intended more as helps 
to those who may wish to continue studies here begun 
than as any perfect analysis of chapters. The books which 
have been especially helpful in preparing these studies are 
here indicated, and their helpfulness acknowledged. 

As will be seen, authorities are sometimes referred to 
and studies suggested which do not relate to shells at all, 
but from the nature of this little volume have seemed to 
belong here. 

Chapter I. — Introduction of our friends the Bremelys 
to the new minister, and the ocean whose name is Peace. 
Interest in the starfish and the Haliotis begun ; the mouth 
and stomach of the former indicated, and the nervous s^^s- 
tem of the latter. For further understanding of these con- 
sult zoologies and encyclopaedias. For runes of the North- 
men read the Sagas, Scandinavian mythology, and Odin, 
by Carlyle. The works of Fouque, whom Richter chris- 
tened " The Valiant," furnish weird and graceful tales of 
the sea. Read the classics, in original or translations. 

Chapter II. — The Pecten and Patella have been used 
as plates and drinking vessels at different times and by 
various nations ; the former served as a badge of knight- 
hood. The beauty and wonderful construction of the 
2 y^ii 



xviii THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

mollusks tenanting these shells surpass the marvelously 
contrived houses in which they live. The power of adhe- 
sion possessed by the Patella and its ability to sustain 
great weights should be tested by those who have access 
to seacoasts. Eead Mollusca, their Shells, Tongues, Eyes, 
and Ears, by Philip Henry Gosse, F. R. S. Examine com- 
mon garden snails, comparing their eyes with those of the 
Pecten upon the seacoast. 

Chapter HI. — The extensive use of Purpuras and 
Murexes in the ancient dying of purples is shown by the 
little mountains of shells still lying in vicinities where 
this industry was plied. The coloring matter — but a drop 
— contained in a vein like sac. The Purpura the crest of 
the city of Tyre. Study Tyre, and learn of the caldron- 
like cavities in the rocks where these shells were crushed. 
Compare the shells of this family, noting how the whorls 
of some of these shells are thickened by varices or nodes, 
indicating rest periods in growth ; also the immense de- 
velopment of the last whirl in some ; the elongated spines 
in others. 

Chapter TV. — Observe with a strong microscope the 
beauty of coil and polish in the most minute shells. 
Where living specimens can be examined the tenants of 
these diminutive shells will be found to possess as compli- 
cated and delicate organisms as those of larger growth. 
Study sand from any sea beach. Shake the sand and 
atoms from sponges on sale, then count and examine the 
treasures you will find. 

Chapter V. — Undine finds a " sea horn " among her 
shells. It is the shell Neptune's trumpeter is fabled to 
have used to still the tumult of the sea. Tritonia tritonis 
used as a teakettle, the operculum its cover. lanthina fra- 
gilis, preserved through the beating of waves and the 
grinding of sand, bears its egg capsules beneath a float, 
and buoyed up upon the tossing seas the delicate creatures 
are born to the purple. 

The horny operculum of land snails may be seen, and 



ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS. xix 

its connection by strong muscle with the animal tested. 
Look up in an encyclopaedia how the cartilaginous air vesi- 
cles composing the egg float of the sea snail are secreted 
and how attached. 

Chapter YI. — The dip net brings up marvels un- 
dreamed of before ; the brine and mud become full of les- 
sons ; hydroids, scalaria, stomapod, and Sapphirina give 
up their secrets. The sea bottom is shown by science to 
be more than a fairyland. A dip net may be used in study 
in either salt or fresh water. Read The Bottom of the 
Sea, by T. Sourel. 

Chapter VIL — The Physalia or Portuguese man-of- 
war is sometimes driven up from the tropic seas and 
stranded. It is one of the most interesting of the Medusce 
family ; armed with poison-filled tentacles which are its 
weapons of defense, and by them its food is obtained. The 
study of the Medusce, either in books or actual life, watch- 
ing development, will fill many days with delightful em- 
ployment. In fresh water, common Hydra may be found 
under leaves of aquatic plants. Cut them in pieces and see 
their power of reproduction from the severed pieces. Turn 
them inside out and see the result. 

Chapter YIII. — Origin of pearls was formerly ac- 
counted for by drops of dew becoming solidified. Pearls 
are formed over hard, offensive matter within the folds of 
the mantle, also secreted and used as nacre by the animal 
in mending points of irritation. Pearls most highly 
esteemed by all nations and at all times. Pearls are of 
various colors and each color has its peculiar votaries. 
The pearl Cleopatra drank questioned by science. 

The rainbow shells of the Haliotidce called Aicabi in 
Japan, abalone in California. The iridescence of their 
nacreous lining due to the laminations of nacr^ secreted 
by the animal and irregularly overlapping in delicate 
films. Read Precious Stones, by Harry Emanuel. 

Chapter IX. — Term Algce now includes much less 
than formerly, many specimens once held as vegetable 



XX THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

now consigned to animal kingdom. Have been variously 
classified, and the old classifications abandoned or giving 
place to those relating more particularly to structure and 
development. 

Algce draw their sustenance from the water, loving 
best the quiet seas of temperate zones, and depending 
upon light for their coloring. Find authority for the 
story in studies upon the ancient art of Venetian point 
lace. 

To secure and preserve the most delicate varieties of 
seaweed, slip a paper under them while floating in the sea 
or a dish of water, raise carefully, arranging any imper- 
fect points with fine camel's-hair brush or the point of a 
pin. Kelp must be pressed between oiled i)aper or pieces 
of muslin on account of the glue it contains. A gatherer 
of seaweeds when questioned regarding many varieties 
replied, " Oh, nobody knows ! " Here, then, is a realm 
waiting and luring investigation. 

Chapter X. — Argonaut and nautilus — both cephalo- 
pods — are quite unlike in many points, yet their names 
have been indiscriminately used. There is a similarity in 
the form of their shells ; that of the argonaut is, however, 
thin and [brittle, while the shell of the nautilus is thick 
and strong. This latter is divided into chambers, hence 
called the chambered nautilus. It is interesting to study 
the fossil species of these shells. 

Chapter XL — The family Veneridce contains many 
beauties long ago dedicated to Yenus. Varieties of these 
shells are numerous, but all more or less beautifully sculp- 
tured and pictured. The value the aborigines attached to 
the round clam of the Atlantic coast has been preserved 
in its name Venus mercenaria. Clams may be studied in 
salt and fresh waters, the number and character of the 
teeth in their hinges observed. "" The nervous system can 
be, with care and patience, worked out in the clam or 
fresh water mussel." 

The family Chitonidce are curiously constructed, en- 



ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS. xxi 

abling the animal to accommodate itself to rounded sur- 
faces. Its shell consists of eight pieces. 

Chapter XII. — Scheveningen, Holland's famous and 
fashionable resort, has its two villages and its two lives. 
The character of its people seems invigorated by their hard- 
ships. Its sand dunes, its sand beach, and its novel bath- 
ing arrangements are well given in Holland and its Peo- 
ple, by De Amicis. 

Chapter XIII. — The Echidermata is a spiny family 
as well as a family of distinction and beauty, all adhering 
more or less closely to the example and characteristics of 
their ancient ancestry. If possible, study living starfish, 
the fossils of this family, and compare the plan of the leath- 
ery exterior of Holothurians with the delicate plates of the 
Echinus miliaris, and examine the spines of the latter and 
their wonderful adjustment. 

Chapter XIY. — In external appearance barnacles re- 
semble mollusks, in organism they are crustaceans. The 
changes accomplished in their various stages are explained 
in works upon zoology. 

Chapter XY. — The Gordonidce, which were long be- 
lieved to be singular and gorgeous sea plants, are now known 
as the home and work of polypi. Some grow in long branch- 
like extensions, others look like network of jewels. Their 
relatives are the polypi — creators of the corals. The soft 
bodies of these builders are uniform in structure and close- 
ly adhere to their enlarged type — the sea anemone. Ex- 
amine and compare structure of different corals. 

Chapter XYI. — Storms destroy many shells while oth- 
ers equally fragile are lifted to places of safety upon the 
crest of the waves. Some burrow in the sand, as the Si- 
phonida, and are discovered by the jets of water they spout 
out when disturbed. Others are moored by cables of their 
own spinning : these are the byssus spinners, and notches 
may be observed in shells of this kind allowing of the 
passage of the byssus, which the animal attaches at will. 
Borers also excavate retreats in wood or rock, even some- 



xxii THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

times completely burying themselves in sepulchers of their 
own making. See tt.e work of pholades in the columns of 
the ancient temple of Serapis, at Pozzuolis. 

Chapter XYIL — Among the most beautiful of shells 
are those of Olividce. The markings of some suggest 
delicate cuneiform and picture writing. The external sur- 
face of these is pictured entirely different from the deco- 
rations on layers just below. These mollusks have the 
ability to dissolve away earlier formed volutions. Study 
olives and cone shells in Structural and Systematic Con- 
chology, by George W. Tryon. 

Chapter XYIII. — Shells were once parts of the mantle 
or delicate films secreted by and thrown off from it : these 
harden, and unite with other tissues previously thrown off. 
Observe these layers joined to each other as shown in the 
more solid shell — the Cassides, for example. 

The color of shells also the secreting V\^ork of tlie man- 
tle ; tints dependent upon light. Still, how is a mystery. 
Observe under valves of shells where light has not 
reached. 

Chapter XIX. — See Land Shells, published by Ameri- 
can Tract Society, for lessons upon the eyes of snails, and 
apparent affection among them. Sounds are produced 
by some varieties of sea slugs. Auditorial nerves are dis- 
covered in some shellfishes. Their whole surface ex- 
tremely sensitive. 

Chapter XX. — In the family Cyprceidoe we find the 
beautiful porcelain shells which change their exquisite 
markings with different stages of growth. In this family 
members of the genus Ovuhim are beautifully enameled, 
but lack the coloring of the Cyprcea. 



rOITE PEOPLE 
AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 



O ever-solitary sea, 

Of which we all have found 
Somevyhat to dream or say — the type 

Of things without a bound — 
Love, long as life, and strong as death ; 

Faith, humble as sublime ; 
Eternity, whose large depths hold 

The wrecks of this small Time. 

Miss Mulock. 

And Nature, the old nurse, took 

The child upon her knee, 
Saying, " Here is a story book 
Thy Father has written for thee." 

Longfellow. 
2 



FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OP SHELLS. 

'' Old Neptune's napping ! " said Tom, as he 
watched the waves that played as lightly as a 
baby's fingers with the sands upon the shore. 

Far out, the sea was blue as bluest ame- 
thyst; slowly circling toward the land the 
waves grew green and opaline; their jewels 
flashed a moment in the sun and were drawn 
back again into the sea. 

Miss Bremely, to whom Tom had spoken, 
seemed under the same spell as the ocean ; her 
eyes held in their blue depths a dreamy look 
of peace ; the sunshine touched her hair to 
gold, gave a glint of richness to brow and 
cheek, and fell in light caress upon her folded 
hands. 

She answered Tom with a smile, then rous- 
ing from her reverie, she said, ^^Onr ocean is 
for the nonce living up to Magellan's good 
opinions and to the name the old navigator 
gave it so long ago." 



4 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

Almost before her sentence was finished, 
Tom, who spied a stranger working a dip net 
down the beach, with true bojdsh instinct had 
sped away to the scene of interest. 

Still Miss Bremely mused in the hazy sun- 
shine, the water lapping lightly against the 
rock upon which she sat. Bending over its 
ledge she gathered tangles of sea kelp the 
waves laid at her feet. 

^^ Thank you, dear old Sea," she said; ^^you 
are gentle and sing like a siren to-day ; to-mor- 
row you may roar like an army of Titans. 
Ah, well, your calms and silvery tides are all 
the dearer to us because of your depths we 
can not fathom, your storms we can not 
quell." 

Kneeling upon the sand she bent her head 
until the incoming waves touched her forehead 
with their crystal chrism, then rising she took 
her hamper of shells and started along an as- 
cending pathvfay to a cottage not far distant 
among acacia trees. The cottas;e was her 
home. Turning from its main entrance she 
chose a winding flight of steps leading to a 
small balcony. There she paused before an 
open door and a childish voice greeted her 
mth, '^ O Cousin Ellen, you look like a mer- 
maid ! " 



FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 5 

Miss Bremely's hands were filled with 
treasures from the beach and her cheeks flushed 
to the delicate tint of sea shells, while the kelp 
she had wound about her hat, trailing down, 
had caught in the loose wefts of her hair and 
fell in tangles of color over the gray folds of 
her gown. But far better than the charm of a 
mermaid was the gentle grace of a loving spirit 
which brought sunshine into the room and Joy 
to the child face that lay among the pillows. 

Following Miss Bremely came Tom. Tom 
was preciously human. There was no hint of 
mermen about him. His trousers were rolled 
to the knees and gave evidence of having been 
touched by the waves. He carried his hat 
piled with limpets, spirals, and shining aba- 
lones, while his many bulging pockets sug- 
gested scores of hidden treasures. 

Undine, the child among the pillows, was 
Tom's little sister, — though Undine w^as not her 
name at all. She was christened Gertrude. 
It had been her mother's name, and seemed to 
belong to the little girl whose cheerful spirit 
and gentle grace made her so like the sweet 
mother Avho had been borne away over the 
mystical seas by the same bark that brought 
the little girl to earth. Her father's niece, 
Miss Bremely, w^as as mother and companion 



6 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

to the child, and, seeing her love for the sea, it 
was she who had called her Undine ; and Un- 
dine she had become to every one saving her 
father. To him she was always Gertrnde, and 
the name fell from his lips with a caressing 
tenderness as if he spoke to the sweet mother 
in heaven as well as to the child upon earth. 

Tom's little sister was as frail as he was 
sturdy, and to alleviate the child's weariness 
when constrained to lie for months among her 
pillows, Miss Bremely wove her tales of the 
sea. At one time it was a rune of the North- 
men, terrible with dragon ships, jotuns, and 
stormy seas, but beautiful with love and valor. 
At another it was a bit of classic lore made so 
simple and charming that Undine forgot her 
pain and longed for the time when she could 
read such wonderful stories herself. But even 
more fascinating than these were the descrip- 
tions of coral groves through which the Undine 
of Fouque's charming stories walked, and the 
gardens, fathoms dovfn, where gay-tinted flow- 
ers of the sea unfolded their delicate frondlike 
branches, independent alike of sunshine and 
shower. 

She had wondered why such gardens grew 
far from any mortal sight, and Miss Bremely 
answered : 



FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 7 

*^ There may be eyes that read these gospels 
Other than the eyes of men." 

AVhen the child was busy, one day, sorting 
her shells, Miss Bremely told her of Ossian's 
lordly cave with its " hall of shells where kings 
and warriors feasted/' and Undine had asked 
that, because of her love for the sea and be- 
cause her name was that of a sea maiden, her 
room might be a hall of shells. Her cousin 
consented upon the conditions that Undine 
learn the names and what she could of the 
haunts and habits of her treasures. So Un- 
dine's room, opening toward the ocean, became 
a little hall of shells, and those who loved her 
brought their treasures into it, until it w^as 
growing to look like an ocean cave or a mer- 
maid's throne room. 

It was here that Miss Bremely and Tom 
came after their walk upon the strand. Miss 
Bremely placed her basket of shells upon a 
table by the bed, while Tom, with more devo- 
tion than discretion, dumped his dripping treas- 
ures upon the coverlet before his sister. 

Miss Bremely's smothered '' O Tom ! " 
was unheard as Tom, with hands deep in his 
bulging pockets, exclaimed : 

" Old Pacific must have been thinking 
about you, Undine ; our cove was full of 



8 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

shells. Guess IVe found you some new ac- 
quaintances. Just look at that beauty — pink 
as a flower ! The new minister was down on 
the beach. He said that shell was a great trav- 
eler and had come from the tropic seas. 

^^ Undine, that minister knew me ! Said he 
saw me at church. I didn't s'pose ministers 
ever saw boys. Our other minister never did. 
I wouldn't wonder if Dr. McLean — that's the 
new minister's name — knew 'most as much as 
Cousin Ellen does about the ocean and its in- 
habitants. He showed me where to look to 
find the mouth and stomach of a starfish ; they 
are right handy together, I tell you ! He says 
starfish are very fond of oysters. You wouldn't 
s'pose they could open an oyster shell, would 
you ? But they can ; they just put that queer 
mouth of theirs close to the closed edge of the 
oyster shell and inject a bitter liquid into the 
shell ; Mr. Oyster don't like the dose and opens 
his valves, in walks the starfish and eats ^ oys- 
ter on the half shell ' without as much as a 
thank you ! Dr. McLean says these starfish 
have a cousin that grows on a long stem like a 
flower. 

^^ See all these rainbow colors," he con- 
tinued, displaying a brilliant HaUotis. '^Dr. 
McLean says the animal that lived in this shell 



FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 9 

had a heart and a digestive and nervous sys- 
tem. He told me what these little ^ portholes ' 
along the top are for, and showed me where to 
look to find a limpet's eyes. 

'^ I never knew before that ministers cared 
about shells. I didn't s'pose they could talk 
about much, 'cept 'Gyptians, Hebrews, and orig- 
inal sin ! " 

After a moment's pause, he added con- 
vincingly, " Dr. McLean's very interesting for a 
minister." 

By this time Tom's pockets were emptied, 
and Undine's eyes sparkling over her treasures ; 
the strands of kelp, too, were untangled from 
Miss Bremely's hat and hair. They proved 
to be very fine specimens, and were placed in 
a press to dry, with strips of muslin on either 
side to prevent their adhering to the paper of 
the press. 



THE MEKMAID'S TEA SEEYICE. 



Shells are at once the attraction of the untutored sav- 
age, the delight of the refined artist, the wonder of the 
philosophic zoologist, and most valued treasure of the 
geologist. They adorn the sands of the sea-girt isles and 
continents now ; and they form the earliest " footprints 
on the sands of time " in the history of our globe.— Car- 
penter. 

... I have seen 
A curious child applying to her ear 
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, 
To which, in silence hushed, her very soul 
Listened intently and her countenance soon 
Brightened with joy ; for murmuring from within 
Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, 
To her belief, the monitor expressed 
Mysterious union with its native sea. 

Wordsworth. 
12 



11. 

THE MEEMAID^S TEA SEEYICE. 

Nature reveals most wonderful secrets to 
those who love her. Undine, bending over 
her treasures with glowing face, uttered many 
an exclamation of surprise and delight as she 
discovered new friends, or had charming se- 
crets revealed to her from the lips of old. 

She amused herself by arranging upon her 
tray a score or more of shells, delicately tinted, 
fair and shining as the rarest china, and not 
very dissimilar in shape to many of the dainty 
dishes of the day, 

'' Come, Cousin Ellen," she exclaimed, " and 
see my mermaid's tea service ! " 

'' Others than the Nereids have eaten and 
drank from beautiful vessels like these," said 
her cousin. "This," she continued taking a 
shell from the tray, "is a Pecten^ or scallop. 
One variety of Pecten served as a drinking 
cup in early times, and when the ancient chief- 
tain, Ossian, with his lordly guests, ' struck his 

13 



14 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

sounding shells/ and when in his hall the ^ shell 
of kings was heard/ it was probably such 
scallop cups the warriors clashed. 

" Another Pecten was called the pilgrim's 
shell, and was used by the early Crusaders as 
both plate and goblet. This shell was some- 
times from four to five inches broad, and found 
in abundance on the coast of Palestine. It 
was also worn upon the front of the hat as 
a badge of knighthood by those who had 
performed the sacred pilgrimages or visited a 
shrine of St. James. This latter gave it the 
additional name of St. James's shell, its proper 
name being Pecten Jacobwus. 

^^The name Pecten means comb, and has 
been given these shells because of the appear- 
ance of ribs ornamenting the surface of many 
varieties. 

^' But beautiful as are these shells, the mol- 
lusks living in such houses as these are even 
more beautiful and instructive. 

'^ By quick opening and shutting of its 
valves the little animal moves through the 
water. When ' at home ' the pretty creature 
lies upon one side, its two valves open far 
enough to admit of our peering in ; there we 
see delicate white fringes waving this way and 
that, withdrawn and again fl.oating over the 



THE MERMAID'S TEA SERVICE. 15 

edo'e of the shell. These are called tentacles, 
and among them can be discerned tiny and 
brilliant points whicli are shown by the lens to 
shine like diamonds, each rimmed in a setting 
of red. These are the eyes of the scallop, and 
Divine thought has protected them by the over- 
hanging shell rim as kindly and carefully as 
human eyes are shielded. 

" We sometimes find the bright yellow^ eggs 
of this little animal, looking not unlike the 
roe of some fishes, but carefully deposited 
among the ruffles of the interior. 

" The dainty dishes of your tea service are 
not all JPectenSj hov^^ever ; here are limpets tinted 
and polished above the most famous china. 
FatellcB^ or limpets, are found in many varie- 
ties ; one upon the v^estern coast of South Amer- 
ica is a foot in diameter, and often serves as a 
dish. Indeed the name Patella signifies a 
dish. 

^^ One is called the ^ cup-and-saucer limpet ' 
because of the cuplike formation in the inte- 
rior of the saucerlike shell. Another here 
upon your tray is called the ^ keyhole limpet ' 
on account of the tiny aperture you see in the 
apex of the shell. 

^^ Shells of this family have long been used 
as ornaments as well as dishes. Necklaces 



1(5 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

have been strung of them, and such are found 
in some of the most ancient sepulchers. 

"When you are well enough to go down 
to the beach you will wonder at the power 
of adhesion possessed by these little limpets, 
for it is impossible to remove them from the 
rocks without breaking their shells unless they 
are surprised by sudden seizure. 

" Some authorities say this is owing to the 
large round foot of the Patella^ which is very 
muscular and possessed of a viscous secretion 
which aids it as a sucker. The perfectly even 
edge of the shell keeps it tight against the 
rock, while ^ the power of treating a vacuum ' 
— a problem too old for your young head — 
is said also to enter into the operation. 
Others attribute the adhesion to no muscular 
action, but chiefly to the ^ invisible glue which 
exudes from the granulated base of the sole of 
its foot,' as the expansion upon which the ani- 
mal moves is called. We find upon removing 
one of these little creatures from the rocks 
that a sticky secretion is left where the limpet 
clung. This gluelike substance is soon dis- 
solved by the action of the sea water. 

" A weight of from twenty-eight to thirty 
pounds has been suspended from the shell of a 
limpet attached to a stone; the weight was 



THE MERMAID'S TEA SEEVICE. 17 

sustained by the plucky little animal for some 
seconds. Whatever theory may be correct in 
accounting for the strength with which these 
little creatures cling to their rocky home, 
we can wholly agree with Wordsworth who 
wrote : 

" Should the strongest arm endeavor 
The limpet from its rock to sever, 
'Tis seen its loved support to clasp 
With such tenacity of grasp, 
We wonder that such strength should dwell 
In such a small and simple shell I 

^' When the water covers his weather-worn 
dome, the limpet does a- walking go ; but always 
returns to the same spot upon the rock and re- 
mains fixed while the tides are out, as its gills 
were never made for breathing air. When the 
rocks are soft, the little limpet wears away 
not only his ' door stone,' but its circular little 
dome reposes in a cavity which its muscular 
foot scoops out, and which the shell exactly fits. 

" Who would guess this silent little creature 
possessor of a tongue twice as long as its shell ? 
Stranger still, this ribbonlike tongue is fur- 
nished with rows of teeth. The PateUa vulgaris 
of the British Isles has one hundred and sixty 
rows of teeth upon its tongue, and twelve teeth 
in a row, making its entire ^ set ' to consist oi 



18 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

nineteen hundred and twenty teeth. When 
not in use mowing the rocks which are coated 
with seaweed, the tongue with its rows of shin- 
ing teeth is comfortably coiled away in its mys- 
terious and wonderfully contrived interior." 

'' I never guessed my mermaid's dishes held 
such a feast of wisdom," laughed Undine. 

'' Your pretty shells are finer than the rarest 
china, and suggest others that have been simi- 
larly used in the early days of our country. 

" There are two varieties of pear conch upon 
the Atlantic coast— the Fulgur carica and the 
Fulgur canaliculatus — which the aborigines 
used as drinking vessels. From the pearly sur- 
faces of these shells their white wampum was 
cut, which was the shell money as well as 
charmed ornament of the Indians ; knives were 
also cut from these shells." 

Through the open door Undine caught 
glimpses of the sea and exclaimed : 

" Dear old Ocean, how I love you ! What 
treasures you send me ! And, Cousin Ellen, 
you are my good genie who charm away my 
pains ; the stories you tell me are better than 
fairy tales and make me forget that I am not 
strong. I seem, like the old German's Undine, 
to wander away with the ocean sprites and to 
know their mysterious and happy life. The 





Listening to the smooth-lipped shell. 
Triton variegatus. 



THE MERMAID'S TEA SERVICE. 19 

sea shouts and laughs and beckons to me, even 
my shells are full of sea songs ; " and she held 
a chambered shell to her ear, talking of its 
plaintive murmur, so like the breaking of 
waves upon a far-off coast. 

A few minutes later she was asleep, the 
shell still held to her ear, and a smile upon her 
lips — a sign of the pleasantness of her voyage 
over sleep's mysterious sea. 

This is what she saw : A quaint little crea- 
ture came up out of the waves and stood upon 
the sand. It looked like a bit of a crumpled 
veil, a weird little wraith made up of frills 
and ruffles, but with a foot so large as to sug- 
gest a mistake had been made in the adjust- 
ment. 

Undine, with her love for all manner of 
sea tenants, smiled a welcome, then waited 
curiously, uncertain what might be the next 
propriety in view of her guest being incognito. 
Presently a voice, finer than the vibration of a 
spider's silken string, came to Undine between 
the noise of the waves, and the little visitor 
announced : 

^^/ built that pearly palace you are holding 
in your hand ; Zpainted its walls and tinted the 
ceiling of its chambers. It was my home for 
years, how many you can tell by counting the 



20 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

thickened varices upon its surface, eact of 
which marks a year of my life and the season 
of rest that came to me after my toils. I pride 
myself no one could have fashioned a fairer 
dwelling, and when at length I was torn from 
it I left its halls filled with memories. Those 
smallest coils echo with the songs of life's 
morning ; its joys as well as its sorrows are all 
repeated there. Upon one side you may see a 
pearly scar. It was there that a borer pierced 
my walls while the shell was yet tender. The 
thrills of horror of that moment still haunt 
those small chambers. Rescue came and I 
lived to mend the broken wall, but you will 
see the scar remains. 

^^ Later the walls of my citadel were again 
pierced and the horrible borer once more 
sought my life; but again I was delivered. 
This time I had grown too large for these 
small chambers, and if you will carefully ex- 
amine the interior of my house you will see a 
partition is built shutting off the broken and 
outgrown chambers. Those are painful memo- 
ries, and mingled with the merrier music in the 
coils you may hear cries that are wild and 
plaintive. 

" Upon the island sands where I was cast I 
once heard a wise man say, ' Sorrow^ gives some 



THE MERMAID'S TEA SERVICE. 21 

of the sweetest strains to life's music' I do 
not know. You may listen and learn for 
yourself. 

^^The next room is filled with the singing 
of sirens and laughter of sea nymphs as they 
leap from crag to crag under the sea. If you 
listen well you may catch, too, the sigh of a 
sailor boy as he fell asleep. 

'^The outer whirls and the vestibule re- 
tain the pleasant murmur of winds through 
palms and spice trees of a sea-girt island, the 
pleasant lapping of waves upon the sand, and 
the laughter of bathers in the surf. Through 
all and above all is heard the ceaseless roar of 
the ocean. 

^^I can not explain to you the mysterious 
union between myself and my native sea, 
whereby sighs and sobbings as from a heart 
oppressed become forever my heritage. 

'^ But the gray old sea has a secret, a mys- 
terious and terrible sorrow. By the thought 
of it he is transformed, and white with rage he 
breaks rocks to atoms and tears continents in 
his fury. Again he falls to sobbing so piteous- 
ly that we all sob with him. The secret of his 
sorrow -is a long, sad tale ; but I will tell it to 
you, and why he moans and raves, why he sobs 
and sio;hs. Listen ! " 



22 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

At this up sped a white wave from the 
sea. It caught the little ruffled and frilled 
wraith of the shell, and with a single sweep 
drew her into its darkest depths, out of sight 
forever. 

A limpet, Patella vidgata^ with its dome- 
like house, is shown in our engraving, in w^hich 
are also the sea snails and the razor-shell. 

The illustration of the Palmer or Pilgrim 
shows the manner in which scallop shells were 
worn as badges of a holy knighthood. An 
empty St. James's shell — Pecten Jacohceus— 
lies in the left foreground of the picture, while 
in the right is a shell with its living inmate, 
displaying the delicate fringelike tentacles as 
seen playing lightly in the water when the 
valves of the shell are slightly opened. 

Between these lies a Fusus or spindle shell, 
well named — long, slender, thin-lipped, and 
without varices. 

Upon each side are arranged several species 
of Seiyula^ which look like little stone ser- 
pents with their plumed and crimson crests. 
Annelids they are, their shelly, twisted tubes 
twining round and fastening themselves upon 
shells, stones, and other submarine objects, 
sometimes completely covering them. The 
dwellers in these calcareous, contorted tubes 




Pilgrim wearing his badge oe knigiituood. 



THE MERMAID'S TEA SERVICE. 23 

are themselves gay with color ; indeed, the sea 
folk in general delight in rich and delicate hues, 
if we may judge from their beautifully painted 
bodies and dwellings. 

The tubelike homes which these gay sea 
worms inhabit, are of their own construction 
from lime and cement which their bodies se- 
crete, and each is furnished with a curious 
door which the owner of the fortress is able to 
close upon the slightest alarm with lightning 
rapidity. 

The different varieties of Serpula are inter- 
esting and attractive embellishments to our 
aquariums, and the marvelous arrangement of 
delicate membranes and muscular libers of 
these extremely sensitive organisms well repay 
our study. 



J 



PUEPUEAS.— MUEEXES. 



The beggar wears thy purple as his own. 

Miss Mulock. 

Who would be 

A mermaid fair, 
Singing alone, 

Combing her hair 
Under the sea. 
In a golden curl 
With a comb of pearl ? 

Tennyson. 

2G 



III. 

PURPUEAS.— MUREXES. 

LooKii^a over tlie shells upon tlie table, 
Miss Bremely found a pretty tuberculated shell 
of the Muricidw family. She told Undine its 
name — Purpura emarginata. 

" It has a pretty relative," said Miss Breme- 
ly, " which is used by the South Sea Islanders 
as a drinking cup, and both belong to that 
famous family which yielded the royal purple 
dye anciently so highly prized by those who 
wore ^ soft raiment ' and dwelt in ' kings' 
houses.' 

'' The dye was a colorless fluid which became 
purple upon exposure to the sun ; it was but a 
drop, and secreted in a veinlike sac near the 
head of the little Murex. No wonder that 
purple stuffs were costly, being valued, we 
are told, as high as two hundred dollars a 
pound. 

" To-day, beside the ruined city which gave 
its name to these purples, lie other ruins — piles 

4 37 



28 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

of shattered homes of the Mitrex trunctdus or 
Tyrian rock shell, 

'^ The centuries have preserved a pretty 
story celebrating the origin of this industry — 
the coloring of purple. It has an idyllic charm, 
and brings the people of that old city, whose 
crest was a Purpura shell, near enough to be 
our kin.- A pretty Tyrian maiden, so runs the 
tale, was tripping along the sea sands ; her pet 
was a dog that sported at her side ; in his play 
he took a shell in his month and crushed it ; 
soon the dog's white hair was dashed with the 
richest purple. The pretty maiden had a lover 
whom no undertaking daunted ; she showed to 
him the beautiful color upon the hair of her 
pet, and begged that she might have a robe of 
the same rich hue. Not many days thereafter 
the hero-lover brought the pretty maiden the 
first robe of royal purple ever worn. 

^^ Other members of this family have also 
furnished the purple dye. At one place in 
southern Greece there is a little ^ mountain of 
shells ' of the Murex hrandarisj crushed for 
their purple. Several of the Purpuras were 
similarly used. Both Muriees and Purpuras 
feed upon mollusks, boring through their shells 
with their hard-toothed proboscis. They are a 
numerous family, and at home in all seas, 



r~ 




■"*^£ 



j3 



The legend of the Tyrian dye. 




c^" 



The comb of pearl. 



PURPURAS— MUREXES. 29 

though the largest and most beautiful are 
found in the tropics. 

" The regularly arranged spines upon many 
of the shells of this family give them a curious 
and to some varieties a very beautiful appear- 
ance. The ' black murex ' {^Murex radix)^ with 
its decorations like fringes of brown and black, 
comes from the tropics, and is a beautiful shell. 
Its rival, however, is the ' rose murex ' {Murex 
palma-TOSce) from Ceylon, bordered with rich- 
est brown and lined with delicate rose. 

"The ^woodcock shell' {Murex teniiispind) 
is a singular, spiny variety of Mitrex^ with a 
long and slender beak. It is called Venus's 
comb. This and the following one are the 
shells the poets call the ^ comb of pearl,' and 
sing of how with it the mermaid 

" Sits on diamond rocks, 
Sleeking her soft, alluring locks. 

Murex trihulus^ found in the Indian seas, has a 
pearly shell with very thin, regular, and elon- 
gated spines." 

Where the mermaid is seen in our picture 
combing her hair with her comb of pearl, the 
beautiful Murex tennispina is the ^' comb '' ; 
and the large number of long, parallel curved 
spines and the recurved shorter ones witli 



30 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

whicli it is adorned are plainly seen at the 
bottom of that page, where is the larger illus- 
tration of the same shell. 

The Murex princeps is the spiny shell 
shown among the olive and cone shells. It is 
a beautiful variety, found upon the west coast 
of South America, is sometimes five inches in 
length. Its ribs are white, contrasting beauti- 
fully with its spines and shadings of chestnut 
brown. 

The MuricidcBj however, are not all regarded 
as lovely. It is a Murex which is one of the 
worst enemies of the oyster, piercing its shell 
and sucking the sweet Juices from mthin. So 
voracious is this depredator that a large num- 
ber of the bivalves are often required to fur- 
nish it a single meal, the young Murex _ select- 
ing the young oyster shells, which are most 
easily pierced, while the old Murex feasts upon 
the large oysters, finding the labor of boring 
through their hard shells but whets its appe- 
tite for more. The oyster farms in some parts 
of Europe are only preserved by fishers being 
employed incessantly to destroy these depre- 
dators. 



MICEOSCOPIC SHELLS. 



Nothing imperfect or deficient left 
Of all that He created. 

Milton. 

Earth's crammed with heaven, 

And every common bush afire with Grod ; 

But only he who sees takes off his shoes. 

Mrs. Browning. 
32 



MICROSCOPIC SHELLS. 

The sand among tlie shells was brushed 
into a tray, and with a microscope Undine 
found it contained tiny shells with colors and 
coils equaling even the large spirals and irides- 
cent abalones which had so taken Tom's fancy. 

Miss Bremely told her that in a pound of 
sand taken from the Adriatic, by computation 
two hundred thousand individuals were found ; 
many more must have suffered wreck from the 
rough tossing and rubbing of the waves and 
sand. In an ounce of sand from Cape May it 
was estimated over thirty-five thousand indi- 
viduals of a single species were discovered. 

She was told that the sands of some beaches 
are composed almost entirely of shells, vari- 
ously and perfectly formed, while the compli- 
cated organisms and harmonious contrivances 
of the animals inhabiting them must fill the 
beholder with amazement. 

Undine sat for a long time pickini>: one 

33 



34: THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

speck after anotlier out of the sand, her aston- 
ishment and delight ever increasing as she 
found snch tiny spirals beautifully polished or 
clear as glass, with every coil perfect. Baby 
bivalves were there with carvings so delicate 
only a strong glass could trace them. From 
some of the shells finest of threadlike feelers 
protruded, showing such living atoms as per- 
fect and as wonderful as are the houses thev 
inhabit. 

^' O Cousin Ellen ! " she exclaimed, as the 
revelation overwhelmed her, ^^ how precious our 
world must be to God ! He has crowded even 
its unsaen places with such beauty and made 
so perfect, things no human eye can see ! " 

'' His wonderful works teach of him with- 
out whom ' was not anything made that was 
made,' " replied her cousin. " In them he 
gives us glimpses of his character. In his 
creations, ^ never more great than when mi- 
nutely great,' he show^ us his love for what is 
perfect — the beautiful we call it. He keeps 
these examples everywhere before us, as if he 
would lure us to love what is perfect and to 
become such ourselves." 



lANTHIFA.— TRITONIA. 



Walled by ranks of steadfast giants, 
Fringed by leagues of shining sea. 

Anon. 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 

Wordsworth. 
36 



V. 

lANTHINA.— TRITONIA. 

IiN- another land — beloved of the Bremelys 
— it was winter. In their California home the 
petals of flowers fell light as snowflakes, and 
the roaring of the ocean was to them in place 
of the tumult of the north wind. 

To the east of them blue mountains en- 
camped, with their feet among flowers and their 
broad shoulders to the siroccos that swept over 
the plain. 

Mr. Bremely hoped in this valley of flowers, 
roses might flush his little daughter's cheeks, 
where through all the ten years of her life 
only lilies had bloomed. 

At the close of his busy days her room 
was the sacred spot to which he hastened, and 
while he bent over her couch or her golden 
head rested upon his shoulder, he looked with 
a longing that was pain, for signs of coming 
sti^ength which physicians had prophesied 
might folloAV this sojourn b)' the sea. 



38 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

Every evening the child rejoiced in receiv- 
ing some simple token of the love that had 
filled his thoughts all day. Sometimes it was 
fruit gro^vn mellow and sw^eet in California's 
amber sun, or a cluster of roses fragrant as 
love. 

This evening of which we write a box of 
shells was before her, and her father rejoiced 
in seeing her eyes sparkle as the eyes of happy 
children who are well. 

She took a long, pointed shell from the box, 
exclaiming, " Cousin Ellen, papa has brought 
me a sea horn to call my mermaids to their 
banquet ! " And placing the shell to her lips 
she blew mimic rounds upon her horn until a 
flush came into her cheeks, and seeing it her 
father's eyes were dim for joy. 

" You pretty purple thing," she said, as she 
selected another shell from the collection her 
father had brought her, " are you a shell at all, 
I wonder, or are you a sea violet ? " 

The greater part of the shell that she held 
in her hand was purple as the veins in her 
wrist, but to add to its delicate beauty the 
spire was shaded to white. 

'' lanthina fragilis is its name, or the ^ sea 
snail ' it is sometimes called," said her Cousin 
Ellen. "" It is one of the daintiest and most 



lANTPIINA.— TRITONIA. 39 

fragile things that sails the seas. Its thin, 
pellucid, gossamerlike shell can not bear the 
rough handling of the waves. The snail that 
lives in this amethystine house swims by means 
of an air float secreted by and attached to its 
foot. To the under side of this float the egg 
capsules are securely fastened, and here the 
baby lantMna is ^ born to the purple.' 

" Your trumpet shell is a Tritonia^ and in- 
stead of sounding for a banquet, mythology 
says the Tritons who lived in a golden palace 
at the bottom of the sea often blew it at com- 
mand of Neptune to soothe the restless waves." 

^^I have read that the largest of these 
trumpet shells are used as tea kettles by the 
people of the Typinsan Archipelago," said Mr. 
Bremely. " The shell has a wire or thong at- 
tached to each extremity, and is hung upon a 
hook above the fire. The operculum is the lid 
of this artistic tea kettle, while the spire serves 
as its spout." 

" We might imagine sea gods resenting this 
common use of their ' wreathed horn,' and 

*' To the smooth, bright sand beguiled, 

raising a ' tempest in the tea kettle,' " laughed 
Miss Bremely. 

" On the contrary," replied her uncle, " I 



40 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

fancy tlie shell that has been honored in my- 
thology, painted by artists, atfd sung in poet's 
lays, now appreciating the beauty there is in 
homely use, and when the fire is on and the 
water hot, sending forth sweeter songs than 
when at the mouth of even Neptune's trump- 
eter himself." 

The scientific name of this artistic tea kettle 
is Triton tritonis. 

Another variety, smaller but beautifully 
variegated and mottled, is the Triton varie- 
gatuSj whose habitat is the tropic sea in vicinity 
of the Philippine Islands. 



SEA SECRETS. 



When bearded mists divide, 

Leave another's eyes and fetch your own. 

Emerson. 

What swimmeth below 

When the tide comes in ? 

Anon. 
42 



VL 

SEA SECRETS. 

Weeks passed quickly into months. Every 
hour was charmed. 

Undine no longer spent the long golden 
days among her pillows, but with rounded 
cheeks and lips growing red as cherrres she 
grew each week more and more like the rich 
roses and sun-kissed fruits of that happy valley. 
As for Tom, his interest in the sea and in min- 
isters steadily deepened. He spent many hours 
upon the beach with ever-increasing delight, 
often in company with the new minister. 

" Dr. McLean don't feed a fellow on the 
bare bones of wisdom," he assured Undine. 
" He tells Just what one wants to know, and 
makes it so plain a poor chap like me under- 
stands what he's talking about. I'm s'prised 
that ministers know so much about such inter- 
esting things." 

" Cousin makes things very plain, and tells 

5 43 



44 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

charming stories, too, about the sea/' ventured 
Undine. 

" Oh, course Cousin Ellen's nice/' responded 
Tom; ^^but she can't go out and dig in the 
shoals and dredge and dip like the doctor." 

Undine had no desire to depreciate their 
good friend, for she, like Tom, had learned to 
love him dearly, and v^as greatly interested in 
what he told them of the old sea's secrets. 

Dr. McLean was a faithful pastor and a 
diligent student. His hours upon the strand 
were his recreation, and the little dip net and 
improvised dredge brought up for him many 
things other than helices and hydroids. To 
him the ocean with its vivid and changing 
pages was full of the thoughts of God, and he 
went down to its study reverently, with the 
thought in his heart, ^^The sea is his and he 
made it," and it thus became to him full of 
sweet sermonry. 

To the boy and girl whose lessons had been 
tossed to them by the waves in the shape of 
shells and seaweeds, these implements — the dip 
net and the dredge — opened a new world of 
wonders. To the ignorant, the brine and mud 
in the trawl would have disclosed only wrig- 
gling bits of transparency; tiny beads of glass, 
opaque or shining, atoms of quicksilver, and 



SEA SECRETS. 45 

wisps of nothingness ; but science detected 
laydroids, delicate scalaria, worm cases, salpse, 
infant scallops, and marvels of embroidered 
embryo known only to science. The most 
precious and promising of these in jars of sea 
water awaited honorable investigation, while as 
to the remainder, with a flat rock serving for 
their table, the three strained and stirred, mag- 
nified and marveled over the common looking 
sand and muddy looking mud, " the maximum 
of interest being reached," Cousin Ellen de- 
clared, " when a boy actually forgot the de- 
mands of his own stomach in investigating the 
stomach of a stomapod ! " 

When the auspicious day dawned in which 
the treasures waiting in their tanks of sea water 
were to give up their secrets, the teacher and 
the children sat at a long table with strainers, 
saucers, pincers, and microscopes before them, 
while expectation and delight were upon their 
faces. 

After examining and explaining several 
minute organisms and admiring delicate and 
snow-white scalaria, so small as to tax the mi- 
croscope and yet perfect in every convolution, 
" This," said the man of science, extricating 
from its muddy cradle an atom of transpar- 
ency, '^ is the Sapphirina ovatolanceolataP 



46 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

^' Oh, please drop his baptismal name/' in- 
terrupted Tom. '' Can't see such a little chap 
if he has a whole alphabet piled up before 
him ! " 

When the small individual with the dis- 
tinguished name was arranged for inspection 
the doctor explained : " It is one of the glow- 
worms that at night fringe the waves with 
gold or hang their lamps in the coral groves 
and the seaweed gardens." His listeners were 
eager for another of the fairy tales of science, 
and he continued : " Beautiful as are the ocean 
depths by the light of day, it is left for night 
to reveal marvels of beauty and brilliancy 
transcending the most vivid and gorgeous of 
earthly panoramas. 

" It is not strange that fairy lore and tales of 
wonder ascribe to the sea charmed gardens and 
palaces glittering with gold and gems. Even 
their wealth of imagery fails to picture the 
brilliancy of the scene when under the canopy 
of night a strange carnival of light begins. 
The sea, then, has no dark and shadowy cor- 
ners. Unattractive little brown beings scarce- 
ly noticed before, are changed as by magic into 
flowers of fire and fruit of gold upon the 
branching coral trees. Sea anemones hang 
their gorgeous blossoms over the reefs or wave 



SEA SECRETS. 47 

their mimic rose-hued petals in what seems a 
gentle breeze. Dainty fronded ' sea ferns/ too 
delicate it would appear to bear their own 
weight, are strung with what look like jeweled 
beads, or hung with infinitesimal electric lamps 
that burn and flash with intensest brilliancy. 

'^ Under such floods of phosphorescent light 
the pink and purple of the seaweeds take on 
more vivid tints, and what was brown before 
grows rich-hued as tints of autumn are. 

" Upon ' the diamond ledges that jut from 
these dells,' the self-luminous Medusce and mi- 
croscopic crustaceans seem signaling to each 
other by lights of every hue which flicker and 
wane but to flash again with brighter glow." 



A POKTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 



God hath so many ships upon the seas ! 
His are the merchantmen that carry treasures, 
The men-of-war, all bannered gallantly, 
The little fisher boats, and barks of pleasure — 
On all this sea of time there is not one 
That sailed without his glorious name thereon. 

Carl Spencer. 

Beneath the sunlit wave she swims concealed 
By her own brightness ; only now revealed 
To sage's eye that gazes with delight 
On things invisible to vulgar sight. 

Drummond. 
50 




' One-seated shallops whose boatmen have departed.' 



VII. 
A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 

THE MEDUSA FAMILY, 

"A Portuguese man-of-war has been 
stranded below on the beach/' announced Mr. 
Bremely, one evening upon his return home. 
" It will pay you all to go down and see it.'' 

Tom hastened to impart the information to 
Dr. McLean, who promised to Join the excur- 
sion in the morning. He came and met Un- 
dine with the words : '' I have brought a Crepi- 
dula in which to convey our Aphrodite to the 
scene of interest ; it would be too long a walk 
for her." 

Undine laughingly answered : " I know 
what a Crepidnla is ! I have some of the shells 
in my cabinet ; they look like fairy boats with 
a seat in one end, and Cousin Ellen told me 
they had been called ' one-seated shallops whose 
boatmen had departed.' You mean I am to 
ride in something nice ; but why call me Aphro- 
dite ? I don't know about that Ions: word." 

51 "^ 



52 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" Aphrodite," explained the doctor, '^ was a 
maiden lovely and loving, whom the old Greeks 
said sprang from the foam of the sea : her car 
was represented as drawn by a dove or a spar- 
row or sometimes a swan. Who or what will 
keep HS company and be like the dove or the 
swan I'm sure I don't know." 

" Cousin Ellen is like a clove," lovingly 
whispered Undine. 'Dr. McLean glanced across 
at the gentle lady in the soft gray gown, and 
the expression upon his face told that he agreed 
with Undine. 

Tom questioned, " What kind of a boat is 
the Portuguese man-of-war ? I can see neither 
steam nor sail along our beach," he added dis- 
appointedly. 

" We shall find our craft none the less," re- 
plied Dr. McLean. 

After passing down the beach for some dis- 
tance Tom suddenly darted toward the water's 
edge, shouting: "The loveliest tangles of sea- 
w^eed ! All colors ! " 

" Tom^ stop ! DoiiH touch that ! " exclaimed 
Dr. McLean in a voice so stern and command- 
ing that Tom stopped at once, startled and 
troubled. He never had heard the minister 
speak w^ith such severity before. Coming to 
Tom's side the party now saw a singularly 



A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 53 

beautiful object stranded, Just low enough to 
be washed over by the waves. Long ribbon- 
like streamers and fringes, purple and rosy 
pink, floated out for yards beyond its richly 
colored body. Dr. McLean explained that 
the Portuguese man-of-war was a jellyfish be- 
longing to the class AcelepJice^ which means 
nettles, many members of this class possessing 
a stinging power which makes the name appro- 
priate. " Tom," he continued, " those beautiful 
threadlike filaments, which at a glance you took 
for seaweeds, are filled with little cells, and each 
cell is' a tiny armory where its death-dealing 
weapon is kept. If you had touched but one 
of those beautifully fringed appendages, even 
very softly, every little cell thus touched would 
have burst open, thrusting its poison-charged 
weapon into your flesh. 

" These poison-filled tentacles are its weapons 
of defense and are also used in obtaining its 
food. The sea animal wounded by a sting from 
these lasso cells soon dies and is devoured by 
this singular creature. 

'^ The home of the Portuguese man-of-war is 
in the tropics, and only occasionally does one 
drift so far into the colder currents. Another 
day we will return and see hoAV much is left of 
this gay privateer. 



54 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" The whole Medusce family are very curi- 
ous and interesting, but none more so than the 
PJiysalia — our acquaintance of to-day/' con- 
tinued the doctor, losing no opportunity of 
instructing the children, who were delighted 
with the tales he told then. '' Instances of the 
stinging powers of this inoffensive-looking crea- 
ture are given, which show that Tom may con- 
gratulate himself that he was prompt in obey- 
ing orders. There is a story told of a young 
sailor who, attracted as Tom was by the beauty 
of this Jellyfish, sprang into the sea to capture 
it as it passed near the ship. When he reached 
it the creature entangled him in its threadlike 
filaments ; in an agony of pain he cried for help 
and had barely been drawn on to the vessel 
when the intensity of the inflammation pro- 
duced by the stings of these tentacles occa- 
sioned brain fever. 

" The different members of this family in- 
habit all seas. Some of them are very large, 
reaching to two feet across the disk, with their 
tentacular appendages extending like threads 
of many colors ; others of diminutive size float 
in immense shoals, and with their phospho- 
rescence illumine the sea till every wave is ' a 
flash of golden fire.' There seems no end to 
the number and variety of these brilliant little 



A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 55 

creatures resembling drops of animated ice, 
tiny crystals of jelly, or floating Jewels. Close 
study reveals in them organisms quite as mar- 
velous as are possessed by sea beauties of larger 
growth. Some looking like translucent glob- 
ules are furnished with bands of membranous 
fins or pellucid paddles whose ever- varying mo- 
tion, under the play of light upon their glitter- 
ing surfaces, gives them all the hues of a prism. 

'' Others are like fairy umbrellas of clearest 
crystal dotted with yellow specks along the 
margin ; these the sages say are eyes. Fring- 
ing tentacles, more than a dozen times the 
length of the disk, float about them and shim- 
mer like threads of fine-spun glass. To com- 
plete the fairylike umbrella the queer little 
stomach of the medusa hangs like a tiny 
handle from its center with the knoblike 
mouth at its extremity. Through the trans- 
parent canals we can see what this medusa 
had for breakfast and w^atch the process of 
digestion. 

" The helpful lens enables us to trace the 
Jellyfish through all its glittering transitions — 
from the egg or gemmule to the time when, 
tired of a sedentary, budding existence, it re- 
turns to the ' original type ' and shoots off in- 
dependently. 



56 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

^^ The immense slioals of these microscopic 
animals not only help at night to produce what 
is called the ' phosphorescent sea/ but by the 
light of day give their color to the waves. 
Thus the variety known as ' whale food ' red- 
den the sea for miles^ and when whalers per- 
ceive their ruddy hue upon the waves they 
realize they have reached the ^ pastures of the 
whales.' " 

By this time their walk had ended and 
Tom announced his " think tank full." When 
the party again visited the spot where they 
had left the Portuguese man-of-war, the chil- 
dren could find no trace of their singular ac- 
quaintance, and but for wiser companions 
would have returned home in disappointment. 
They were shown, however, several filmy ob- 
jects, scarcely more than an inch across, flat, 
flabby, and semitransparent. These they 
learned were the air sacs of their jellyfish, and 
were told that even a medusa, weighing several 
pounds and with many yards of tentacles, when 
he dropped his " mortal coil " left only sea 
water and air sacs ; these latter Tom presented 
to Undine as " the skeleton of the Portuguese 
man-of-war." 

The colony of Hydroids growing about a 
truncated harp shell in our engraving gives a 




Hydroids and jelly-fish. 



A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 57 

very good idea of the delicacy and beauty of 
some of these organisms, while above the Hy- 
droids and the harp shell float what look like 
shimmering balloons, airy, fairy enough to bear 
" sylphs and fays beyond the moon." 

These are jellyfisli — Medusce — first pro- 
duced as buds upon the Hydroid, where they 
enlarge, until at length they become detached 
and float away. 

Some Hydroids cast upon our sea beaches 
and preserved in collections might be taken 
for seaweeds, they are so delicate, were it not 
for their horny external coverings. 



PEAELS.— MOTHER-OF-PEAEL. 



The cockelle, with heavenly dew so clene 
Of kynde, engendereth white pearls rounde. 

Old poem. 

When we see such forms as these we hardly like to 
think that they are secreted by some slimy mollusk, but 
would imagine that the mermaids tear off pieces of the 
rainbows where they touch the sea, and carry them to the 
cold depths to congeal them into shells. — H, A, War(Vs 
Catalogue of Species. 

60 



VIII. 
PEARLS.— MOTHER-OF-PEARL. 

FASciTiTATiiN^a as was microscopic study, Tom 
lost none of his admiration for tlie abalones, so 
lustrous and iridescent, while Undine looked 
for seed pearls in every bivalve that came into 
her hands. 

Dr. McLean told them the pearly lining of 
the abalones was called mother-of-pearl, or 
nacre^ while true pearls were the product of 
different .bivalves, the best "solidified drops 
of dew," as the Orientals call them — being 
found in the pearl oyster {Avicula margari- 
tifera). 

" According to an ancient fable," continued 
the doctor, " oysters rose to the surface of the 
water, opened their shells, and received the 
drops of dew which were speedily transformed 
to ^ white pearls rounde.' In recognition of 
this fable Thomas Moore wrote : 

'' Precious their tears as rain from the sky 
That turns into pearls as it falls in the sea. 
61 



62 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" Anotlier theory has been that pearls were 
always the result of a grain of sand or some 
irritating substance entering the shell ; the ani- 
mal, unable to discharge it, converted it into a 
pearl. Hence we are told : 

*' Learn from yon Orient slieH to love thy foe, 
And strew with pearls the hand that brings thee woe. 

This is beautifully suggestive, yet seems to 
be only half the story. While irritating sub- 
stances are known to be covered by nacre it is 
believed all pearls are not the result of irrita- 
tion, but are secreted by the mollusk and held 
ready to be dissolved by powerful acids, which 
are also of the animal's secretion, for spreading 
over openings made in their shells by the borer. 

" Injured shells are often found with their 
points of irritation covered with thin lamina- 
tions of this nacreous matter. 

" Pearl ilshers tell us the little pearl maker 
is, sometimes at least, able to expel his jewel 
at will, and often does so when captured ; un- 
derstanding this, the fisher places his hand over 
the shell so as to close its valves or secure the 
pearl if ejected. 

'' After possessing himself of all the pearls 
in old mussels — the old being the most produc- 
tive — the gatherer som^imes deposits the mol- 



PEARLS.— MOTHER OF PEARL. 63 

lusks in safe and convenient coves where lie 
may gather the pearls for several years in suc- 
cession from the same shells. 

" The Chinese, understanding the ability of 
these pearl mussels to cover hard substances 
with their fluid secretion, which soon hardens 
into mother-of-pearl, or nacre^ bring their wiles 
to bear upon a species of fresh-water mussel — 
the Unio Hyria — compelling it to manufacture 
pearls to their order. 

" They keep the little Unio in tanks, and 
place small shot, bits of shell, and other sub- 
stances between the mantle and the valve ; 
these particles are soon converted into pearls 
by the industrious little gem maker. 

^^They carry their ^ways that are dark' 
still further, and by means of the work of 
the innocent little TJnio they impose upon 
the credulous and superstitious minds of their 
people. They insert a metal image of their 
god Buddha within the valves of the mussel, 
and in process of time it becomes coated with 
the nacreous secretion and— presto ! — the im- 
age of Buddha in pearl and adhering to the 
shell of a mussel ! The image commands a 
good price and promises great advantage to the 
ignorant dupe who sees in it an unanswerable 
affirmation of Buddha's divinity. 



64 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

'^ The pearl oyster whicli produces the finest 
pearls of all the pearl-growing bivalves is 
found at considerable depth in large shoals 
in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Persia, some parts 
of the Pacific Ocean, etc. About thirty thou- 
sand people find employment in the pearl fish- 
eries of the Persian Gulf alone. 

^^ As many as one hundred and fifty pearls 
have been gathered from a single shell. 

"Among the other bivalves producing 
pearls is the Pinna or wing-shell, the valves 
of which are often two feet long; the best 
known variety is the P, nohilis^ which inhabits 
the Mediterranean, and is especially curious on 
account of its byssus. 

" Another singular variety is the ham- 
mer oyster — Malleus, vulgaris — whose ham- 
mer-shaped shell is beautifully laminated with 
mother-of-pearl. 

"But Tom must hear about his beautiful 
abalones," said the doctor, seeing he held sev- 
eral in his hands. 

" This rainbow^ shell belongs to the family 
Haliotidce^ of which there are many species, 
named according to their slight variations and 
the localities which they inhabit. 

"Abalone — the name which we upon this 
California coast familiarly use — is a name the 







Pearl-producing shells. 



PEARLS.— MOTHER OF PEARL. 65 

early Spanish settlers gave, and is of doubtful 
meaning. 

" Shells of this family have their center of 
distribution in Australian and adjacent seas. 
Quantities abound upon the coast of Japan, 
where they are known as ' AwahV Other 
names by which they are often called are ear- 
shell, green ear, Omer shell, etc. 

" Haliotis splendens and H. tuherculata are 
the names science has given to the beauties 
you have in your hands, Tom. 

" An enormous traffic is carried on in these 
shells so useful in delicate inlaying, in lacquer, 
and other ornamental work. The animals in- 
habiting these palaces are considerably sought 
after for food, while fine pearls have been 
found within the mantle of some. The irides- 
cent tints of these shells are produced by the 
fluid secretion with which the interior of the 
shells are lined ; this hardens quickly and be- 
comes nacre^ presenting a beautifully smooth 
and polished surface to the tender body of the 
animal within. They are also due to the ex- 
cessively thin laminations, irregularly overlap- 
ping, laid on in delicate semitransparent films. 
The thinner the laminations of this nacre mem- 
brane the more transparent, and hence the 
more lustrous and beautiful, the shell. 



66 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" You are aware, Tom, with what tenacity 
these abalones cling to the rocks, so they can 
only be removed by taking the little house- 
holder unawares and giving dextrous and sud- 
den knocks." 

" Yes," said Tom, '' the people here tell of a 
Chinaman who, putting his fingers under one of 
these shells in his attempt to pry it from the 
rock, was held there by the abalone until the 
tide came up and the man was drowned." 

" This tight hugging of the rock," ex- 
plained the doctor, " is accounted for, I believe, 
by the large suckerlike sole of the animal. It 
consists of a rounded disk of muscular tissue, 
which has marvelous power of adhesion and 
brings not a little atmospheric pressure to bear 
upon the shell. Like the limpet, it has a very 
viscous secretion, which is a strong factor in 
holding it to the rock. 

"The apertures along its dome suggest 
round windows high up in some old castle 
wall They are the openings through which 
the gills of the animal are kept in communica- 
tion with the surrounding water. The earlier 
openings you see are closed — filled up with 
shelly matter — but some are always kept 
open." 

As the doctor laid down the abalones, Un- 



PEARLS.— MOTIIEK OF PEARL. 67 

dine, with a womanly penchant for the dainty 
and delicate, reverted to pearls, twirling the 
while a ring upon her finger and displaying 
the soft luster, the purity, and slight transpar- 
ency of its pearly setting. " I have read," she 
said, '' that Cleopatra once dissolved and drank 
a pearl. In the story she was called very beau- 
tiful, but I can not see how a woman so fool- 
ish and vain could have been very beautiful." 

" Yet it is true," replied Dr. McLean ; 
^^her beauty and power to charm so influ- 
enced rulers and warriors that it has been said 
if Cleopatra's nose had been half an inch longer 
(so spoiling her beauty) the history of the 
world would have been different ! 

" Nevertheless science is not a little skep- 
tical about the pearl which it is recorded she 
dissolved and drank. It was one of a pair and 
was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand 
golden crowns. It is now affirmed upon excel- 
lent authority that so large a pearl could not 
have been dissolved except by means of a pow- 
erful acid, and so large a quantity w^ould have 
been required that it could never have been 
drank with impunity. 

'' The mate to this pearl, so the authorities 
say, was sawn in twain by order of the Em- 
peror Severus and dedicated to Venus, bein^; 



68 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

used in decorating lier statue in the Partlie- 
non. 

" Nevertheless the dissolving and drinking 
of such a costly draught would scarcely have 
surpassed the extravagancies indulged in by 
the ancient nations of wealth. Fabulous sums 
were paid for pearls, and they were used with 
greatest prodigality. Whole crowns were made 
of them ; idols and images were studded and 
encrusted with them ; and they were wrought 
into the most delicate and beautiful of fabrics. 
The earliest records concerning the use of 
gems among the ancient Babylonians, Egyp- 
tians, and Persians show that pearls were re- 
garded as among the richest gifts of Nature. 
By the Romans the mania for their possession 
was even greater. 

^^ Mithradates, the formidable opponent of 
the Romans, as you were reading this morning, 
was also not only a lover of wars, but a con- 
siderable lover of the arts as well. When he 
was conquered by Pompey and his magnificent 
collection of gems was taken, quantities of 
pearls were found, some of them wrought into 
most exquisite and elaborate designs. Among 
them was a portrait of the king himself cun- 
ningly fashioned entirely of pearls in mosaic. 

^^The settings of your ring. Undine," said 



PEARLS.— MOTHER OF PEARL. eO 

the doctor, seeing tlie little girl still twirling 
the pearls upon her finger, " are white and lus- 
trous and have the polish that pertains to the 
very finest pearls. It has been suggested that 
this wonderful polish and perfection of luster 
which art can not imitate, may have been caused 
by the continued friction of the soft body of 
the oyster. 

" We hold such pearls as these in the high- 
est esteem, but, since there is no accounting for 
tastes, we find the inhabitants of some other 
countries differ from us in their estimation of 
these gems. We have been accustomed to 
think of pearls as white alone, and we have 
thought of them as Nature's expression of 
purity. This is not the case with all admirers 
of pearls. The people of India and of China, 
for example, see greater beauty in those of a 
bright yellow color, while others prefer those 
that are pink. Pink pearls, as they are called, 
are not all pink, but range in hue from pink to 
red or even pale yellow or a dull dead white. 
They are generally neither very beautiful nor 
very perfect. Others of a black or leaden-gray 
color are also sometimes met with, and when 
perfect and of a good shape are highly valued. 

"As you already know, the Pacific Ocean 
yields a rich harvest of these gems, and it 



70 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

seems highly probable that the regions of Cali- 
fornia and Panama were kno^n to the ancient 
inhabitants of America as rich fisheries. The 
hearts of Cortes and his followers were fired 
with anticipation and with envy when they 
saw the wealth of gems, many of them pearls, 
with which the draperies of the wealthy Aztecs 
were embroidered and fringed, and their gold 
and feather work sprinkled with jewels. By 
the conquests of the Spaniards in Mexico and 
Peru great quantities of pearls were obtained. 
Old Spanish historians have recorded wonder- 
ful stories of the wealth of the Aztec kings in 
pearls, immense numbers of which were exceed- 
ingly fine. They also affirm the familiarity of 
these people with the localities from which 
they were obtained." 



FLOWEES OF THE SEA. 



No words tliat I know of will say what these mosses 
are — none are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none 
rich enough. . . . The traceries of intricate silver and 
fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, burnished through 
every fiber into fitful brightness and glossy traverses of 
silken change, yet all subdued and pensive, and framed 
for simplest, sweetest offices of grace. — Ruskin. 

Hearts there are on the sounding shore, 

Something whispers soft to me, 
Restless and roaming forevermore, 

Like this, the weary weed of the sea ; 
Bear they yet on each beating breast 

The eternal type of the wondrous whole, 
Grace unfolding amid unrest, 

Grace informing with silent soul. 

C. G. Fenner. 
72 




78 



^SJl'- tan- 
seaweed 
which Undine 
had placed in 
her aquarium, 
calling all to ad- 
mire her flowers 
%J of the sea and 
to listen to the 
sea song she had 
learned about them : 



74 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

On the surface, foam and roar, 
Restless heave and passion dash, 

Shingle rattle along the shore, 

G-afchering boom and thundering crash. 



Under the surface loveliest forms, 
Feathery fronds with crimson curl, 

Treasures too deep for the raid of storms — 
Delicate coral and hidden pearl. 

These, the strands of a carpet soft, 

Richer than mortal ever trod ; 
Freed by the current and borne aloft 

To show us the hidden work of God. 

Slie begged Dr. McLean to tell of tliese 
delicate sea flowers. He began by saying : " The 
term Algw^ or seaweeds, is mucli more restricted 
than formerly ; it used to embrace many ma- 
rine specimens now consigned to the animal 
kingdom. Many are the gay dissemblers in 
the sea, and we can almost imagine them laugh- 
ing together at their successes in so long de- 
ceiving the very elect of scientists. 

'^ Linnseus, a Swedish naturalist, with great 
love for Nature and great skill m guessing her 
riddles, was one of the first to see that many 
so-called sea plants were sensitive to human 
touch, and possessed the organs of animal life. 
He catalogued fifty species which he regarded 
as seaweeds ; we now know of several thou- 



FLOWEKS OF THE SEA. 75 

sand, though our knowledge of many of these 
is quite limited. 

"Algw have been regarded as belonging to 
one of three classes, according to their color: 
the Melanospermew embraced the olive brown 
and black ; the Hhodospermece were the purple 
and the red ; while the Chlorospermece were the 
green. This arrangement has been discarded 
and various others substituted, relating more 
particularly to the structure and development 
of the Algm. These classifications, however, 
are still very imperfect, and the nomenclature 
of many groups is still undetermined. Wheth- 
er man understands and gives them a name or 
not, they grow in grace and beauty, perfectly 
understood by their Creator and accomplishing 
his will. 

" They draw their sustenance from the wa- 
ter, being without roots, often fastening them- 
selves by a kind of sucker to rocks, shells, and 
sea bottoms. Not unfrequently their hold be- 
comes loosened or their branches broken, so 
we find them tossed by the weaves upon the 
strand or carried in tangles through the ^v^aters, 
far from their native colonies. So great are 
these masses as sometimes to hinder the pas- 
sage of ships in their courses. Varieties of 
kelp in vicinity of the Falkland Islands are 



76 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

twisted by the waves into enormous vegetable 
cables several hundred feet long and thicker 
than the human body. There are bays where 
thousands of people have found employment 
gathering these spoils after an ocean storm. 

^^The Sargassum hacciferum is the Gulf 
weedj which always floats and is not unfamil- 
iar to voyagers upon the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans. The localities where this seaweed is 
most abundant are called Sargasso Seas. 

^^ Seaweeds love best the quiet waters of 
the temperate seas, avoiding the cold waves of 
the frigid zones and the more heated currents 
of the torrid. If found in these, they lack the 
delicacy of the mosses in the temperate zone. 
Different seas and different localities have their 
distinct sea flora, often found in such immense 
colonies as to give their color to the sea. 

"They are dependent upon light, hence 
are not found below one thousand feet, or 
the depth to which light ceases to penetrate. 
Light is their painter also : mosses near the 
surface, catching its fullest rays, are green 
like terrestrial vegetation; the brilliant reds 
and delicate pinks are to be found upon rocks 
at no great depth and near the coasts ; those 
in the deeper seas grow bro^vn and abundant, 
and their somber hues but enhance the bril- 



FLOWERS OF THE SEA. 77 

liancy of tliose that have enjoyed more of the 
kisses of the sun. They wave like plumes^ 
like gayest ribbons are tossed in the currents ; 
some as fine as frostwork can scarcely be dis- 
cerned, while others in mimic forests grow to 
a thousand feet." 

Miss Bremely remarked : " There is one 
variety of seaweed which has passed into his- 
tory because of its influence upon the industry 
and the lives of a far-away people. Shall I 
tell you about it?" She read her answer in 
the eager faces turned toward her ; that of the 
good doctor beamed with especial pleasure as 
he listened, and Undine wondered that she 
had not known before that Dr. McLean liked 
seaweeds so well. 

"THE MERMAID'S LACE." 

The little island of Burano lies like a gem 
in the blue Adriatic. In the early days its 
inhabitants were simple fisher folk, spreading 
their nets at night in the coves of the sea ; in 
the morning, carrying their fish in rude gon- 
dolas to the markets of Venice. The women 
mended the broken nets or netted new^ ones, 
little guessing they were catching a trick of 
netting which should one day form the founda- 
tion of a fabric to be the pride of royalty. 



78 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

But all were not content with this quiet 
island life. There was one, a youth, who 
heard strange voices in his soul, luring him 
away from this little anchorage. The great 
world, that drew him with a power he could 
not resist, prepared a bark for him she called, 
and he went out, not knowing whither he 
went. 

At last, in the far south seas, his heart 
bade him tear from its briny fastness an un- 
known seaweed whose beauty attracted him 
strangely. He had sailed far for this unknown 
plant. 

As our hearts prompt us to bestow upon 
our best beloved the most beautiful gifts at 
our command, so the heart of this man, who 
was performing a mission, though he knew it 
not, bade him carry this trophy of his voyage 
to a maiden who waited in far Burano. 

AVith the utmost care he preserved the deli- 
cate AlgoB^ and after weeks long and many of 
weary sailing, he laid the plant, perfect and 
beautiful, in the hand of the waiting maiden. 

But, alas ! there came a day when the treas- 
ure began to fade ; and the maiden saw that, 
notwithstanding her greatest effort, her gift 
must perish. The same spirit that prompted 
to its gathering inspired the little fisherwoman. 




The mermaid's lace. 



FLOWERS OF THE SEA. 79 

Tirelessly she worked, matcliing the skill her 
lingers had acquired in netting of seines with 
a quenchless desire to preserve a semblance of 
her fair but perishable treasure. 

Finally there dawned a morning when the 
plant lay black and withered. All the beauty 
which had held the two hearts by its magic 
was gone ; but in the hand of the maiden lay 
its delicate counterpart, woven of the finest of 
threads. 

The little sea plant which, it is said, actu- 
ally furnished designs for the original Venetian 
point lace, the netting of which the women of 
Burano and of Venice were anciently so fa- 
mous, has since been known as mermaid's lace. 



THE AEGONAUT.— THE ITAUTILUS. 



A bevy of roses, apple-clieeked, 
In a shell of crystal, ivory-beaked, 
With, a satin sail of a ruby glow. 

Emerson. 

The winds go up and down upon the seas, 
And some they lightly clasp, entreating kindly. 
And waft them to the port where they would be ; 
And other ships they buffet, long and blindly, 
And God hath many wrecks within the sea. 
Yet it is sweet to think his care is under, 
That yet the sunken treasure may be drawn 
Into his storehouse when the sea is gone. 

Carl Spencer. 
83 



i 



X. 

THE AEGONAUT.— THE NAUTILUS. 

The day following, Dr. McLean brought 
Undine a large translucent shell ; so thin and 
shining was it as to suggest the possibility of 
its vanishing in air like a bubble. 

'^ Yesterday," he said, placing the shell in 
her hand, '^ your cousin told us how a people 
learned to make lace from a piece of seaweed. 
I will tell you how the Argonauta taught men 
navigation. 

" The argonaut and nautilus, although both 
belonging to the cephalopods — the highest di- 
vision of the moUusks — are in most points quite 
unlike; yet in consequence of a similarity in 
the form of their shells their names have often 
been indiscriminately used. The little voyager 
with the silken sail is the Argonauta Argo^ 
quite generally known as paper nautilus. 

^^ Many and charming are the stories told of 
this little sailor who, in his fairy bark with 
satin sail, was wafted o'er the 'unshadowed 

83 



84: THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

main.' Six of its arms it dropped as oars at 
the side of its shallop and two more with their 
membranes of silk were spread to the wind. 

" It is said that catching glimpses of this 
little mariner with whose inner life, it now ap- 
pearSj the ancients had no very intimate ac- 
quaintance, they conceived the idea of the ves- 
sels which they constructed, propelled by oars, 
or wafted by the winds. The steamer, too, was 
an outgrowth of hints given by these little 
cephalopods, who by forcing water violently 
through a tube in the body drive themselves 
with considerable speed in a backward di- 
rection. 

^^ Pictures of these little mariners sailing in 
fairy fleets have fascinated the world from 
Aristotle down, and we can hardly pardon 
scientists of the present day who compel to 
the belief that these stories are but charming 
myths. The pretty fleets the ancients saw, we 
are told, were probably not Na%itili at all, but 
were the Argonauta^ which are true floating 
mollusks ; but even these we are now informed 
never row their tiny craft nor spread a topsail. 

^'The ^ arms' of these little animals, we 
must now believe, were held during the voyage 
close to the side of the ^sharp-keeled, high- 
pooped' little vessel Ho keep its balance 



THE ARGOKAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. 85 

straight/ wMle the two winglike membranes, 
that we loved to think were silvery sails, are 
now supposed to be the secreting organs nsed 
in fabricating the boat of pearl. These wise 
observers have found, too, that it is only the 
female argonaut who rides like a princess, the 
males being diminutive and possessed of no 
insignia of royalty. 

" The little princess sits serenely in her 
shell, but is in no way attached to it, and might 
unharmed be lifted out and placed in another. 

" The shell, besides serving as her boat, is 
the pearly cradle or little ark in w^hich the 
infant Argonaiita are borne in safety through 
the floods. The eggs are fastened to filamen- 
tary stalks and by these to the involuted spire 
of the shell, and are usually concealed by the 
body of the mother. 

^^This shell of the argonaut as you see," 
said the doctor, reverting to the shell which 
Undine still held in her hand, ^^is thin and 
brittle as glass ; hence while thousands sail the 
seas but few are found upon the shores. 

^' On the contrary, the shell of the nautilus 
is thick and strong, and found upon many 
tropic shores. The pearly nautilus is the one 
with which we are best acquainted, and seems 
to be the most abundant. This shell is some- 



86 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

times a foot across, delicately porcelainlike, of 
a light-buif tint, beautifully veined or striped 
in a zigzag pattern Avith chestnut brown. The 
beauty of the nacreous lining of this shell I 
have no words to describe. It seems a min- 
gling of the delicate tints of most delicate 
flowers and the beauty and brilliancy of rarest 
gems. 

^^The shell is divided into chambers, hence 
the name ^chambered nautilus.' When very 
young this is not the case, but as the animal 
increases in size it leaves its first compartment, 
w^hich becomes an empty chamber, and moves 
forward to one still larger ; the rim of the shell 
continues to grov/, and back of the little occu- 
pant a pearly partition is produced. This is 
repeated from time to time, the little animal 
always using the room next to the vestibule ; 
but through all preserving a connection by 
means of a silvery membranous tube called a 
siphuncle. 

" But few species of these animals now re- 
main and they alone in warm seas, but geology 
shows that both Argonauta and Nautili were 
very abundant in earlier periods. 

'' The fossil ammonite was a kind of ' old- 
fashioned cousin ' to the nautilus or paper 
sailor. These are found in great abundance, 



THE ARGONAUT.— THE NAUTILUS, 87 

some rocks being composed almost entirely of 
them. The name ammonite comes from a word 
meaning ram, as anciently these shells were 
thought to be ram's horns, which, indeed, they 
do resemble; hence popularly called Cornua 
AmmoniSj Jupiter Ammon, an Egyptian deity, 
being sometimes represented in old sculptures 
with head and horns of a ram, these latter and 
the shells bearing a fancied resemblance. 

^^ They have also been taken by the igno- 
rant for petrified snakes and called ' serpent 
stones,' The ignorant have been further de- 
luded by having these ' serpent stones ' pre- 
sented to them with a finely carved snake's 
head at one end of the coil, while a cunningly 
devised tradition accounted for the general ab- 
sence of the head upon the ground that a saint 
had first beheaded the reptiles and afterward 
changed them into stone. Sir Walter Scott 
weaves this legend into his poem entitled Mar- 
mion, when close around the fire 

*' Whitby's nuns exulting told 
How, of thousand snakes, each one 
Was changed into a coil of stone, 
When holy Hilda prayed. 

And how 

" Themselves, within their holy bound, 
Their stony folds had often found. 



88 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

'' These ' stony folds/ or fossil shells, are 
sometimes found three and four feet in diam- 
eter, but the majority are much smaller. The 
smaller chambers of these shells seem also to 
have been air cells, all connected by means of 
the tube through which air was forced in or 
dispelled, enabling the little animal to rise or 
sink at pleasure. These pearly partitions also 
served to strengthen the shell. 

"But our story is incomplete," said the 
doctor, "without that charming poem which 
has given to Dr. Holmes the title of ' Poet 
Laureate of the Nautilus.' " 

Miss Bremely, who had anticipated this 
wish and sat with book in hand, now read the 
following poem entitled 

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. 

This is the ship of pearl that poets feign 

Sails the unshadowed main, 

The venturous bark that flings 

On the sweet summer wind its purple wings 

In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings 

And coral reefs lie bare, 

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 

Its w^ebs of living gauze no more unfurl, 

Wrecked is the ship of pearl 

And every chambered cell. 

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, 

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 



THE ARGONAUT.— THE NAUTILUS. 89 

Before thee lies revealed — 

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed. 

Year after year beheld the, silent toil 
That spread this lustrous coil, 
Still as the spiral grew. 

He left the last year's dwelling for the new, 
Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 
Built up its idle door. 

Stretched in its last found home and knew the old no 
more. 

Thanks for the heavenly message brought from thee, 
Child of the wandering sea, 
Cast from her lap, forlorn ! 
From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne 
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn ! 
While on my ear it rings. 

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that 
sings. 

Build thee more stately niansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll. 

Leave thy low- vaulted past ! 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast 

Till thou at length art free. 

Leaving thy outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. 



ROCKED m THE CEADLE OF THE DEEP. 



The sea is a jovial comrade, 

He laughs wherever he goes ; 
His merriment shines in the dimpling lines 

That wrinkle his hale repose ; 
He lays himself down at the feet of the sun, 

And shakes all over with glee, 
And the broad-backed billows fall faint on the shore, 

In the mirth of the mighty sea ! 

Bayard Taylor. 
92 



XI. 
ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEER 

^'How happy tlie sea looks to-day! Its 
waves are sparkling and dimpling as with mer- 
riment/' and Undine's heart was like the sea 
of which she spoke. 

'' Halloo ! " shouted Tom from the water's 
edge ; " here's something beats a mermaid's 
cradle. It's funny enough to make old Nep- 
tune roar." And Tom's laughter^ though per- 
haps a trifle less uproarious, was a very good 
substitute. 

There lay a clam shell upon the sand. The 
tide had lifted a diminutive crab into it and 
left both just low enough for the sea to touch 
with its silvery hands and keep them rocking, 

"That might be called crabbed comfort," 
laughed Miss Bremely, " and looks as if Venus 
had turned Crustacean baby tender." 

After amusing themselves for some time 
over what Tom called " a freak of Nature," the 
ever-observant Undine asked, " Cousin Ellen, 

93 



94 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

what did you mean by saying that about 
Venus turning Crustacean baby tender ? " 

'' The shell in which the baby crab is rock- 
ing is called Venus Calif oriiiends^'' said her 
cousin, " and all the shells of this family were 
long ago dedicated to the sea-born maiden 
Venus, whom the doctor told you about some 
time ago, only he called her Aphrodite, the 
name the old Greeks gave her. Many of the 
shells of this family are among the most beau- 
tifully colored and sculptured as well as the 
most graceful in shape, and as such were re- 
garded fitting offerings to the goddess who was 
said to surpass all others in grace and beauty. 

'^ Clams of different varieties are abundant 
in salt water, some with shells heavy and 
rough, others thin almost to transparency and 
beautifully tinted. The round clam, known on 
the Atlantic coast as quahog and valued as 
an article of food, furnished the famous purple 
wampum from the margin of its shell. This 
violet wampum was counted twice as valuable 
as the white by the aborigines, and its money 
value has been commemorated in the name V. 
mercenaria^ by which this clam is called. 

'' The solid shells of the surf clam, Mactra 
solidissima^ were used by the same Indians as 
hoes for cultivating their maize fields. 



ROCKED IN THE CEADLE OF THE DEEP. 95 

"The giant clam, Tridacna gigas^ would 
make a ^sliding chariot' large enough for a 
very good-sized sea nymph. This shell, which 
is said to be the largest in the world, has been 
found with its valves nearly two yards long 
and weighing over five hundred pounds. 
Should you ever go to Paris and visit the 
Church of St. Sulpice you will there see two 
valves of this tridacna which are used for hold- 
ing ' holy water.' 

" One of the most elegant bivalves is that 
tridacna known as ^bear's paw.' It is from 
the Indian Ocean, and is beautifully mottled 
with yellow and red. 

" These are only a few of the many varieties 
of clams suggested by this cradle rocking in 
the waves. All do not belong to the Venus 
family, howsoever much by their beauty they 
may deserve the honor." 

Tom had compared the rocking clam shell 
to a " mermaid's cradle." In her hall of shells 
Undine had a dainty chiton, the C\ Kaiherina^ 
of which she was very fond. It was really a 
gem of a cradle. 

The chitons are curious specimens when 
alive, and death invests them with charms 
which in life they failed to possess. The shell 
is made up of eight different pieces so united 



96 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

by strong ligaments as to allow of the animal 
adapting itself to rounding surfaces or even to 
roll itself up like a ball. This skeleton is the 
pretty " mermaid's cradle." 

Icelandic sailors affirm the not very palata- 
ble-looking chiton if swallowed will alla}^ sea- 
sickness or quench thirst. 

We have heard of no one able to refute 
this statement, and in our heart of hearts seri- 
ously doubt if any one, even in the pangs of 
seasickness, ever attempted the experiment. 



GAY, SAD SCHEYEOTNGEK 



The very waves that washed the sand 

Below him he had seen before 
Whitening the Scandinavian strand 

And sultry Mauritanian shore, 
From ice-rimmed isles, from summer seas 
Palm-fringed, they brought him messages. 

Whittier. 

, . . but yet 
I feel for mariners of stormy nights, 
And feel for wives that watch ashore. Ay, ay, 
If I had learning I would pray the Lord 

To bring them in. 
But I make bold to say, " Lord, good Lord, 
I am a broken-down poor man, a fool 
To speak to thee. But in the book 'tis writ, 
As I hear say from others that can read, 
How when thou camest thou didst love the sea. 
And live with fisher folk, whereby 'tis sure 
Thou knowest all the peril they go through 
And all their trouble." 

Jean Ingelow. 
98 



XII. 
GAY, SAD SCHEYENINaEN. 

Whei^ Dr, McLean again called, lie found 
the party at the beach ; npon Joining them 
Undine was quick to spy a package of shells 
he brought. 

'^ These are for you, little Sea-Maiden," he 
said, " and will whisper you runes from the 
north, for they came from Scheveningen upon 
the stormy North Sea." 

" Oh, strange Scheveningen ! " exclaimed 
Miss Bremely. " Do tell the children of that 
curious place." 

So Dr. McLean told them of Schevenin- 
gen, where Holland steps down into the sea, 
where the sands pile themselves into dunes. 
Gay throughout the summer with the beautiful, 
the wealthy, the titled, and the crowned of 
Europe ; beaten in winter by the wind-lashed, 
wraith- whispering, jotun- vexed sea. 

He told of its independent, ingenious, and 
curiously isolated people ; of their little village 
of black cottages over against their other vil- 

99" 



100 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

lage of gay and fashionable dwellings; but 
two miles from The Hague, yet as distinct and 
original as if from another continent. 

He led the little group to respect and ad- 
mire the sturdy industry and independence 
which wove such strong fiber in the characters 
of these secluded, oddly dressed, and extremely 
poor people. 

He told them how in the decline of the 
herring fishing, which had been their chief in- 
dustry, the people were not discouraged, but 
in rope spinning, weaving nets, gathering shells, 
selling fish, and the like, gaining but the scanti- 
est of living, were still brave and true, their 
very poverty invigorating their characters. 
How in eye and bearing they demand respect, 
and with dignity seem to say, " We have 
need of none ! '* He told them of the sand 
dunes, and of the broad beach of hard sand, 
dotted over with tents and wickerlike chairs 
with woven covers, to shelter from the sun ; of 
the unique arrangement for bathers; of the 
festivals and gayeties in which the flower of 
the aristocracy of Europe participate. 

When he had finished, and the children 
were busy upon the beach, he continued mus- 
ingly, half to himself and half to Miss 
Bremely : 



GAY, SAD SCHEYENIlSraEK 101 

"Brave, brave Scheveningen ! Gay, sad 
Scheveningen ! As thou hast two villages, so 
thou hast two lives ! The festivals of summer 
pass, but none save Heaven and the dwellers 
in the little black cottages know the heart 
tragedies enacted there, ' the mortal anxieties, 
the holy joy of return, and the inconsolable 
sorrow of parting.' 

" There is," he continued, '' a Scheveningen 
memory which these shells always suggest to 
me." 

Seeing Miss Bremely's interest, he related 
as follows : 

" I had been in The Hague two weeks and 
had often met at my hotel a French count, for 
whom I instinctively felt an extreme aversion. 
I had also often seen an Austrian party, evi- 
dently people of rank. There was nothing 
particularly attractive about any of these peo- 
ple, except one, a lady quite young and the 
most lilylike of any person I had ever beheld. 
Her complexion was fair as that delicate flower, 
with a certain charm suggesting to me nothing 
so much as a lily. Her every motion was re- 
plete with grace, and her hair, which curled in 
rings about her face, w^as like sunlit gold, 
always reminding me of Mrs. Browning's 
words. 



102 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

*' How many golden scudi 
Went to make such ringlets. 

" I knew nothing whatever concerning her, 
but was attracted by her beauty, as old tales 
tell us men have been charmed by the beauty 
of a siren. 

" In my wanderings about the city I often 
sauntered into a shop where curiosities were 
sold. I was interested in the relics displayed, 
w^hich were of an exceptionally line order, 
but more, I think, I liked while looking 
at his wares to listen to the talk of the 
garrulous old man, who delighted in leaning 
over his counter and telling the stranger 
of people and places in his beloved father- 
land. 

" His face radiated good humor, and kind- 
ness was written in its every line. One day 
while studying some fine pictures of Holland 
scenery, Herr Witzman, for that was the old 
vender's name, inten^upted me wdth exclama- 
tions of delight at the beautiful horses he saw 
dashing down the street. Upon looking out I 
saw they were attached to a tiny voitwe^ and 
were driven by the count of my aversion, w^hile 
at his side sat the lilylike lady with the golden 
curls. 

^^ I had but time to perceive this w^hen, 



GAY, SAD SCHEYENINGElSr. I03 

' Mein Gott! Mein Gott ! Es ist Erailie P 
came from the lips of Herr Witzman. 

^^ The dashing horses seemed poised in air, 
their feet almost upon the head of one of 
the strangest looking beings I had ever seen, 
one whose peculiar costume showed her to be 
a woman of Scheveningen. The feet of the 
horses descended and the human creature lay 
crushed beneath them. 

^^ The count uttered an exclamation of 
anger, and lashing the fiery horses dashed on 
down the street, while the lilylike lady, only 
whiter grown, with a little scream nestled 
closer to the side of the count. 

^' The poor, mangled, broken piece of hu- 
manity was tenderly lifted by the old curiosity 
vender himself and carried into his little shop, 
while again he repeated, ^ Mein Gott! Es ist 
Emilie I ' 

" Upon nearer view, and with the strange 
hat which she had worn removed, I saw the 
woman's face, though marked by toil and ex- 
posure, was finely chiseled. Its lines of char- 
acter were drawn strong and deep. I instinc- 
tively compared her face with that of the lily- 
like maiden, and found I regarded the latter as 
I had regarded the count. Her beauty was 
gone forever. 



104 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" A physician was summoned and restora- 
tives applied, but Emilie, as her good old 
friend called her, was past the help of man. 
She revived somewhat, but knew none and was 
unconscious of the presence of any about her, 
but with wavering breath talked to one we 
could not see. 

"^Are the boats in?' she whispered, her 
rugged native speech sweet with solicitude. 
^ It has been long w^aiting — so long ! ' Then 
wearily she seemed to sleep. 

"Again she whispered, ^ The fog — the fog 
— Heaven help the — boats— if they be — coming 
in ! ' Then after a pause, ' Mutter — list for the 
— signals of — Der Leitstern, The roaring — of 
the sea — is — in — my ears. It is — very cold.' 
A shudder passed over her frame ; it would 
have been taken for a paroxysm of pain but 
that she was past pain's cruel power. When 
she spoke again it was hurriedly, as with Joy, 
but with great weakness. ' God be praised ! ' she 
said ; ' Der Leitstern — is coming — through — the 
fog ! It shines — Mutter — like a — star. Hein- 
rich ! — God be praised ! — Heinrich — beckons — , 
at the prow ! See — Mutter — how grand — and 
fair — ^he looks ! Heinrich — calls — us ! Haste, 
Mutter — I — will — h elp — thee. The — boat — ^is 
— here. Heinrich — I — come ! God — be- ' 



GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGIEN. 105 

"We who watched doubted not lier ejacula- 
tion of praise and thanksgiving was finished 
Just beyond our dull ears' hearing, and the 
hand she raised with her last fluttering heart 
beat was laid in the hand of him she saw ' so 
grand and fair ' waiting for her upon the phan- 
tom ship. 

" When all was over Herr Witzman told me 
Emilie's sad story. 

" Eighteen years before Der LeiUtern sailed 
away to fish for herring on the seas about Scot- 
land. No braver, truer man sailed with her 
than Heinrich Bretzel, to whom Emilie was 
betrothed and to whom she should be wed when 
the flotilla returned from its fishing cruise. 

" Scarcely a week after the boats went out a 
fearful storm came on ; the heavens were black 
for days, and the angry sea below seemed ris- 
ing to meet the angry sky above. Der Leit- 
stern was never seen again nor its crew heard 
from. But knowing the character and habits of 
the Scheveningen fishermen, we believe that 
after doing their utmost, then, as their custom 
is, they shut every aperture of the boats, and 
going into the cabin read the words of him 
who ' ruleth the raging of the sea ' and waited 
his will. 

" When the boats came no more, Emilie, who 



106 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

was not needed in the cottage of her parents, 
went to the lone mother of her betrothed and 
labored for her support. When there w^ere no 
fish for her to bring to the markets of The 
Hague, she came to Herr Witzman with shells 
she gathered among the sad waves at Scheven- 
ingen. The day of w^hich I have told you she 
had a small store of shells and was evidently 
crossing to Herr Witzman's little shop when 
thrown under the feet of the horses. 

" I bought the shells, giving their price into 
the hand of Herr Witzman to be used tow^ard 
her burial. The day following I was myself 
at Scheveningen. 

^^I sat in one of the wicker-basket chairs 
upon the wide sand beach when a curious 
closed carriage drawn by a single strong horse 
came down the sand and was driven out far 
into the sea. A door opened and the lilylike 
lady with golden hair descended into the 
water, and with gay laughter sported among 
the waves. 

" Again in the evening I saw her dancing 
amid lights and gayety with the French count. 

" Neither of them thought, nor had hearts 
worthy to think of Emilie, to whom a life of 
hardship and of sorrow had given riches of 
which they had no power to conceive." 








SCIIEVENINGEN SlIKLL-GATUERER. 



AN ANCIENT FAMILY 



Truly the skill of the Great Architect of Nature is no 
less displayed in the construction of a sea urchin than in 
the building of a world.— Edward Forbes. 

108 



XIII. 
AN ANCIENT FAMILY. 

^' Old Neptune's a spendrift ! See the 
^ sand dollars lie's thrown away ! And here's 
a devil's pincushion ! What does theology 
say about that ? " asked Tom merrily. 

"Theology and science take that spiny 
thing/' answered the minister, " and read in its 
eventful history ' by what w^onderful, what un- 
expected roads God arrives at the completion 
of his designs. One does not discern the slight- 
est resemblance of form between the little 
slow-swimming dome (the infant sea urchin) 
and the spined and boxed urchin which crawls 
over the rocks.' 

" So accustomed are we to the thoughts and 
to the skill of the Creator as manifested in 
his works, we are indifEerent to the lessons 
they teach or to the prophecies they may con- 
tain. So much for your text, Tom ! 

" The sea urchin has several names besides 
the one which you bestowed upon it. Sea 

109 



110 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

porcupine it is called from the forest of spines 
whicli cover its test. When dead these spines 
rub off and the beautiful shell is apparent, 
which then is not inappropriately called sea 
egg. Echinus is the name science has given it. 
This class of radiate animals belongs to the 
group EcJiinodermata^ which means spiny- 
skinned, and truly the EcJiinidw are a spiny 
set. Yet those very spines are most wonder- 
ful examples of the divine handiwork. Their 
tints are delicate and various ; the substance 
of which they are composed is a calcareous 
matter, but transparent as glass. Each spine 
is connected with the interior of the animal 
and moved at its will. You have noticed the 
tiny raised processes on the surface of a dead 
urchin's shell ; the spines have a depression 
which exactly fits over this point in a man- 
ner similar to the ball-and-socket joints in the 
human shoulder and hip. 

'' It is by help of these spines that the Echi- 
nus climbs even a smooth surface, or with 
them excavates for itself a hiding place in the 
sand. Many Echini are able by some means 
to bore holes in rocks, and there spend their 
days in seclusion and safety from enemies that 
infest the sea. 

'^ The mouth of the sea urchin is on the 




A SEA LILY. 

1. Pentacrinoid larva of the rosy feather star. 

2. The bud quite young. 

3. Dorsal view of the larva of the feather star at very early stage 

of its development, before the disappearance of the ciliated 
bands. Much enlarged. 

4. Mature rosy feather star. (Comatula rosacea.) 



AN ANCIENT FAMILY. HI 

under surface, and armed with five calcareous 
teeth and strong muscular Jaws it is well pre- 
pared to do its work of crushing small crusta- 
ceans and mollusks, which are its food. 

"The starfish is the pretty cousin of the sea 
urchin, and is a ' lineal descendant ' of the ' old 
family' CrinoidecB. There is, in fact, an ^4.5- 
teria who in its early life adheres to the time- 
honored custom of its ancestry, and fixed to a 
stalk attaches itself to some graceful seaweed 
or aristocratic coralline. Their bodies, like 
others of this group, are supported by calcare- 
ous envelopes composed of numerous pieces. 
The number of these plates in the Red Sea 
starfish, for example, is estimated to be eleven 
thousand. 

" Our starfish, as you know, has generally 
five rays. Solaster papposus has ordinarily 
thirteen ; another has more than thirty. In 
one variety they are found many feet long. 

" Some starfishes possess the power of grow- 
ing another ray if one be broken off, and the 
one sundered may grow four more and be- 
come starfish ^ No. 2.' Not only this, but some 
varieties are actually suicidal, flying to pieces 
when taken from the water. 

"The Comatula rosacea^ or feathery star, is 
one of the prettiest creatures you can imagine. 



112 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

When young it grows upon a stem and waves 
in the sea as an aster — which it sometimes imi- 
tates in color as well as form — waves in the 
breezes. When it becomes fully developed it 
finds itself free from the restraining stem and 
floats out into the watery w^orld at will or 
catches to stones, shells, and seaweeds by its 
feathery arms, holding with such tenacity that 
it would seem each bit of feather concealed a 
claw. 

"You have heard how starfish delight in 
living upon mussel and oyster beds, being ex- 
ceedingly destructive to the latter. If the 
oyster refuses to open its doors to Mr. Starfish, 
Mr. Starfish has a way of his own of opening 
them ; and if the oyster still remains obdurate 
and refuses to be eaten, the starfish accommo- 
dates himself to circumstances and projects his 
stomach about the oyster and sucks in the soft 
parts. The stomach is capacious, extending its 
lobes into each arm or ray. 

"Another relative of my lady fair — the 
stone lily — possessing her family traits but not 
always her charming attractiveness, is the Halo- 
thurian or sea cucumber. We do not observe 
in this unattractive specimen the delicate plates 
around insulated rounded cavities. Yet natu- 
ralists tell us the leathery exterior of the sea 




Fishing for sea cucumbers in the Philippine Islands, 
holothurid^. 



AN ANCIENT FAMILY. 113 

cucumber is rudimentary calcareous matter ar- 
ranged on the same plan as in tlie skeleton of 
its more attractive relatives. 

" In color it is green, brown, or red, and 
its delicate tentacles are arranged over its sur- 
face, corresponding to the tiny points mark- 
ing the vegetable which it so strongly resem- 
bles as to have received its name. In deep-sea 
dredgings specimens are often brought up 
about the size of a marketable cucumber. 

'' Although these strange creatures eat and 
drink they appear to attach very little impor- 
tance to their stomachs, sometimes actually 
vomiting up their whole internal structure, 
and yet live on undisturbed ; in a few months 
the organs are reproduced. 

"The sea cucumbers are found in many 
seas, but gain their greatest distinction on the 
coasts of China and Africa, where they are 
highly appreciated as articles of diet. In 
China they are prepared for market under the 
name of ' trepang.' 

"Although upon first acquaintance these 
flowerlike animals do not appear to resemble 
each other, nevertheless we find they presence 
the family characteristics of their distinguished 
progenitors, the stone lilies, so abundant in 
past ages that whole beds of marble have been 



114: THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

formed almost entirely from their broken stems 
and flowers. 

" Once the glory of the sea, they have 
dwindled to a few species, inhabiting for the 
most part the deepest seas." 

The following may be helpful in giving an 
understanding of the classes of Echinoderraata. 
First we have the Crinoidea^ which are really 
stalked starfishes, the body mounted upon a 
stem which is jointed and hollow ; second, the 
Asteroidea^ which are free and have five arms ; 
third, Ecliinoidea^ having a spherical body, 
with long spines ; fourth, the HolothuroidcB^ 
having elongated bodies, with skin soft or 
muscular. 



BAENACLES. 



There are castles by the sea ; 
All their domes are porphyry. . 

Tell me who the builders be 
Of these castles by the sea. 

116 



Anon, 



XIV. 
BARNACLES. 

" Heke we come to a pygmies' village," said 
Miss Bremely one day wlien the party were 
upon the beach. " I can scarcely step without 
shattering their tiny towers, they stand so thick 
upon the rocks." 

^^When the little tenants of these castles 
' take the curl papers out of their hair/ and 
opening their two-valved doors look over their 
turrets, any small knight might be charmed 
into riding a tilt in their behalf," laughed the 
doctor. 

'' Don't barnacles live in these little cas- 
tles ? " questioned Undine. 

" Yes," replied Dr. McLean ; " though if you 
were to ask them who they were I fancy they 
would never know what to say. They have 
so many transitions I wonder if they know 
whether they are themselves or somebody else. 
In external appearance they resemble the mol- 
lusks ; in more important parts of their organ- 
isms they are crustaceans. 

117 



118 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" In their first form these little castle hold- 
ers, but dancing atoms, have one big black eye, 
three pairs of legs, and on the forehead a pair 
of flexible horns. If we did not know the end 
we should say a mistake had been made in 
their legs, which seem to grow more and more 
unfit for use either for land or water. ^As- 
cending the scale,' the body with its fringed 
legs, to which are added two pair more, is now 
inclosed in a tiny two-yalved shell like a mus- 
sel. Its one eye becomes two, its head and 
antennae increase in size, and it now prepares 
to make the most wonderful change of all. It 
^ stands on its head ' literally and fastens itself 
head downward to the rocks by means of a 
cement itself secretes. Its bivalve shell is no 
longer needed, its shield becomes the beginning 
of its castle walls, and its group of legs become 
tentacles which wave gracefully backward and 
look like delicate curls of hair. It is these 
which give the name Cirripeda to this group, 
cirrus meaning a lock of hair and pedes a foot. 

" They now are true barnacles, and their 
castles by the sea are like turrets crowding one 
upon another. 

"All barnacles are not the same kind, and 
their turrets are not all upon the rocks. Many 
are attached to pieces of wood, hulls of ships, 



S^T^*. 



■^ 




Barxacles. 

Murex haiistellum and Harpa imperialis, with attached barnacles. 
Infant barnacles. 



BARNACLES. 119 

etc. Not infrequently vessels put into port 
and have these incrustations which grow bur- 
densome, removed. Others, more nomadic per- 
haps in their dispositions, attach themselves to 
the bodies of whales, of sharks, etc., and while 
stationary are still among the greatest of trav- 
elers. 

^' When myths and science were much in- 
termingled, the barnacle was believed to be the 
embryo of a goose, hence called the barnacle 
goose. We find one of the learned men of the 
sixteenth century describing : ' A thing in form 
like a lace of silke finely woven, the first that 
appeareth when the shell gapeth open. A little 
later the legs of the bird hang out. In short 
space of time it cometh to maturity and falleth 
into the water, where it becometh a fowl.' 
While science has dissolved this fable, it is 
known notwithstanding that the barnacle does 
pass through transitions quite as wonderful." 

The children fell to examining barnacles, 
the doctor to musing, presumably upon science. 
Miss Bremely sat watching the waves that 
came riding up the sand like restless, foaming 
steeds. Presently she began singing softly Sid- 
ney Lanier's exquisite lines entitled 



120 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

BARNACLES. 

My soul is sailing through the sea, 
But the Past is heavy and hindereth me. 
The Past hath crusted, cumbrous shells 
That hold the flesh of cold sea-raells. 

About my soul 
The huge waves wash, the high waves roil, 
Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole 

And hindereth me from sailing ! 

Old Past let go and drop i' the sea 
Till fathomless waters cover thee ! 
For I am living, but thou art dead ; 
Thou drawest back, I strive ahead 

The Day to find. 
Thy shells unbind ! Night comes behind, 
I need must hurry with the wind 

And trim me best for sailing. 

The face of the singer was toward the sea, 
and she did not know as she might if she had 
looked into the doctor's eyes that he had ceased 
to meditate upon science. 



A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 



What the cloud doeth 
The Lord knoweth ; 
The cloud knoweth not. 
What the artist doeth 
The Lord knoweth ; 
Knoweth the artist not. 

SiDKEY Lanier. 

Take therefore the talent from him — for unto every 
one that hath shall he given : hut from him that hath not 
shall he taken away even that which he hath.^ — Bible, 

122 



XV. 

A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 

Ui^Dii^E discovered a fan gorgon in the doc- 
tor's cabinet and begged to know what it was, 
while Tom was no less delighted with the va- 
rieties of coral the cabinet contained. 

^^Oh, that/' said the doctor to Undine, 
"was a mermaid's fan, and no belle of terra 
Jh^ma conld boast of a fan so gorgeous. Its 
tints were rose and yellow, green and lavender, 
and bedight with jeweled filigree it flashed 
until its glitter made a sort of daylight under 
the sea. It is called a fan gorgon. Undine, and 
when alive was even more dainty and charming 
in color, and far more glittering than I have 
described or can lead you to imagine. Dainty 
and beautiful enough it was to be called a mer- 
maid's fan. 

" It was long considered a singular and gor- 
geous sea plant, but the microscope has re- 
vealed it to be the home and the work of little 

polypi which naturalists had thouo-ht were 
10 12;^ 



124 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

flowers. The polypier, or polypus stalk, of the 
sea fan, SHiTOiinded by only a semicalcareous 
crust, is flexible, the whole structure tough and 
elastic. Different species show various, but all 
beautiful formations. Sometimes the branches 
appear nearly straight, at others they are a 
mazy network of the most delicate and intri- 
cate tracery, and when their colonies of Jewel- 
like polypi are in bloom they seem the realiza- 
tion of a fairy dream. 

'^ Gorgonidce are found in all seas, but are 
most abundant in those of warm climates, as is 
the case with all species of polypi. 

" These fan manufacturers were cousins to 
the polypi who wrought those miracles in 
stone," continued the doctor, turning to Tom 
and the corals. ^^All these little workers 
have been known as ZoopJiyteSj or flower 
animals. They might have been called Phi- 
losopher's Puzzles, for such they have long 
been, and even now they keep many of 
their pretty secrets safe in their own little 
stomachs, this anatomical locality being at 
present regarded by the sages as the ' seat and 
center' of personal identity in these pretty 
polypi. 

" In their living and active state each little 
worker looks like a tiny star with its rays ar- 



A SEA FAN AND A SEA PAEABLE. 125 

ranged about the central point, which is the 
mouth. 

'' We are apt to regard such minute organ- 
isms as insensible to surrounding conditions, 
and unable to communicate with each other 
even if they might be conscious of anything to 
communi(iate, but we find Nature clothes her 
feeble folk' with mystery and endows them 
with faculties we can not understand ; and 
if you were to injure or disturb one of the 
polyps in a piece of coral like this, quick 
as a flash would the danger be telegraphed 
to every member of the little colony, and 
you would see each tiny animal instantly 
curl back as if he had been the one who suf- 
fered. 

^^An enormous traffic is carried on in the 
different varieties of coral, affording employ- 
ment for hundreds of vessels and thousands of 
fishermen. It is broken from the sea bottom 
by means of beams or irons attached to the 
boats used for that purpose, and brought up by 
grappling irons ; divers also are employed in 
these coral fisheries. I once saw them in the 
Mediterranean gathering red coral {Coralliion 
ruhrum)^ the divers themselves looking like 
very unattractive mermen, or sea monsters, as 
they came up from the depths with the great 



126 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

nets swung from their shoulders in whicli they 
had deposited the coral. 

" The bulk of coral used for ornamentation 
is fished from the Mediterranean Sea^ and some- 
times at a depth of seven or eight hundred 
feet. 

" The red is susceptible of a fine polish, and 
is much sought after by many Eastern nations 
for personal adornment, for sword hilts, for 
amulets, which are superstitiously believed to 
have power to avert evil. The name given it 
by the Greeks commemorated their belief that 
it was originally the blood drops that fell 
upon the seashore from the head of Medusa, 
hardened and planted in the sea by ocean 
nymphs. 

" Formerly the red commanded the highest 
price of all the corals, but this point has been 
yielded to the delicate pink, which vies in 
color with the tinted petals of the queen of 
flowers. 

^^ Besides the red, pink, and white coral, 
there are many shades of green, brown, yellow, 
and black. All are more or less beautiful, both 
in life and in death. 

"The flowerlike inhabitants have disap- 
peared, but their workmanship remains in these 
exquisite marbles before you, Tom," continued 



A SEA FAN AND A SEA PAEABLE. 127 

the doctor in a more serious vein. ^^ During 
their lives this dainty tracery was hidden, but 
now we can see the true beauty of the homes 
into which their lives were wrought This 
calcareous substance secreted by these polypi 
is ^partitioned into cells with mathematical 
regularity, and, studding the entire surface, 
produces a most beautiful eifect. The spe- 
cific variety of these coral homes is almost 
endless, yet each species builds after its type. 
The lesson has been learned, and the crea- 
tures live up to it throughout endless genera- 
tions.' " "" 

While Dr. McLean displayed the different 
varieties of coral which his cabinet contained. 
Miss Bremely said, " The quotation you have 
Just given suggests to me a sea parable which 
I think contains a beautiful lesson." The doc- 
tor turned to her with a pleasant interest, and, 
interpreting his wish in the smile he gave, she 
repeated the following 

* Henry A. Ward, in Catalogue of Corals, Gorgons, etc. 



A SEA FAN AND A SEA PAEABLE. 129 

yours at the beginning. Have a care ! I warn 
you!" 

And the wave with the silvery crest sped 
on. 

" It is true we are small and can do but lit- 
tle," whispered the Coral ; " but the Master of 
Life created us for a glorious purpose. He 
has deigned to give us lovely visions, and 
has said to us in a voice sweeter than song, 
'Build ye!''' 

'' Yes," assented the CoralUum ruhrum) pre- 
cious coral), " his presence suffused the clouds 
with a glow surpassing the beauty of the morn- 
ing ; fair tints commingled and veins of crim- 
son and scarlet intertwined like delicate twigs. 
We are a feeble folk, and we knew not that we 
could be of any use, but a voice came out of 
the cloud, saying, ' Build ye on this %Di8e I ' 
We knew not how, but in strong desire and 
overpowering love we dwelt upon the vision. 
Of ourselves we are no longer aware. We 
lose ourselves in obedience to the beautiful 
vision, and we feel an assurance that all is 
well." 

A Wave touched lightly the pink and crim- 
son hijouterie of the coral bed and whispered 
to the polypi: '^In losing yourselves ye find 
honor and become the settino; of crowns. 



130 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

There is a crown whose jewels, like yours, are 
wrought in obedience and love, and of them 
it is said, ^They shall shine forever and 
ever ! ' " And the wave with the silvery crest 
sped on. 

The Tubipova 7nusica (organ-pipe coral) 
continued : '' It was near the morning of crea- 
tion ; upon the sand stood One whom the earth 
and the sea adore, and at whose feet the white 
waves bow their heads. He gathered the hol- 
low reeds that grew at his feet, and, pressing 
them together, he said to us : ' Build ye on 
this wise ! ' 

" We knew not how ; yet the sea and all 
things that are therein praise him and do his 
will. We gave ourselves to the W'ork, and be- 
hold ! he hath blessed it, and that hath made 
it good." 

A wave touched the tiny '^ organ pipes " of 
coral and a w^ind breathed upon them ; a soft 
melody arose, in key with that harmony heard 
when the morning stars sang together. The 
wave with the silvery crest sped on. 

^^And to us," said one of the arborescent 
corals — -the Mandrepora formosa — " the vision 
was given on this wise : The branching trees 
of the forest were reflected in the mirror of 
the ocean, and while in our feebleness w^e w^on- 




A FAN GORGON. HeRMIT CRAB. 



A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 131 

dered a power came upon us to build. We 
gave ourselves ; we could do no more. The 
vision is ever before us. We would that we 
could better accomplish the work that was 
given us to do." 

A wave circled among the branches of coral 
and whispered to the little polypi: ^^I come 
from laving a beautiful island where palm trees 
grow and homes of mankind are clustering. It 
was you^ little ' reef builders/ who laid the 
foundations of that island. Ye builded better 
than ye knew." And the wave with the sil- 
very crest sped on. 

Upon the sand crawded a crab — he with the 
" compound faceted eyes " ! He of the race of 
armored knights ! But, alas ! by generations 
of indulgence and selfishness, lost was half his 
coat-of-mail — which had been a family heir= 
loom — two of his sets of claws, made strong 
for service, had become enfeebled by disuse or 
wholly followed the lost armor. He crawled 
in terror upon the sand, seeking safety from 
his legion of enemies. Spying the shell of an 
industrious mollusk, he hastily devoured the 
helpless creature and backed crabbedly into 
its empty shell. The crab had become the 
half -naked vagabond tramp of the seashore ! 

A wave broke upon the sand. It gave the 



132 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

hermit crab a sad but disdainful toss, and said : 
" I warned you long ago ! This comes of not 
doing your best with gifts the Creator bestowed 
upon you ! " And the wave with the silvery 
crest sped on. 



A STOKM.— EAZOR FISHES. 



When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, 
And billows wild contend with angry roar, 

'Tis said, far down, beneath the wild commotion, 
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. 

Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth, 
And silver waves chime ever peacefully. 

And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, 
Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea. 

So to the heart that knows thy love, O Purest ! 

There is a temple sacred evermore : 
And all the babble of Life's angry voices 

Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door. 

Far, far away the roar of passion dieth. 

And loving thoughts rise kind and peacefully. 
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, 
Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in thee. 

Mrs. H. B. Stowe. 
134 



XVI. 

A STORM.— EAZOR FISHES.— BYSSUS SPINNERS. 
—STONE EATERS.— LIGHTED TOMBS. 

Ik grandeur an approaching storm strode 
througli the heavens, walked upon the waters, 
and thrilled the palpitating air. 

Tom threw himself upon the ground under 
the very lashings of the ocean spray, but happy 
as a storm petrel he watched the marshaling 
of the tempest. 

Dr. McLean stood with uncovered and up- 
lifted head. He felt the power and the pres- 
ence of one mighty — 

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters : 
Who maketh the clouds his chariot : 
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind. 

As the wind sweeps through a casement 
and smites an ^olian harp placed there by the 
builder, and of which till then the householder 
knew not, so were touched chords in this man's 
soul — chords placed there by the Master Build- 
er, to be used one day when the house should be 

135 



136 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

larger and the wind the " breath of the spirit." 
He who in reverence and humility stood with 
uncovered head was a quickened spirit. His 
whole being thrilled with the consciousness of 
these greater powers — of senses till then un- 
recked of. Whether in the body or out of the 
body, he knew his immortality — that he stood 
before the face of the Eternal. He felt his 
kinship. 

A chill little hand was slipped into his. 
He yearned for the fuller, further communion^ 
for the larger vision ; but he turned from the 
glory, from the vision, and bent to the child at 
his side. He could only so be true to his kin- 
ship ; and so the vision stayed in his soul. 

Undine stood trembling ; her pale face told 
how the black storm clouds and the furious 
sea terrified her. 

" It all makes me feel so small and weak," 
she said ; '' as if the wind could carry me away 
into the darkness and storm as it would carry 
a leaf." 

" Fudge ! " exclaimed Tom, as he lay upon 
his back, kicking his heels into the sand. '' I 
like it ! It's grand ! It makes me feel as if I 
were an eagle and heard the swoop of eagles 
overhead. My ! don't the wind and the sea 
roar ! " 



A STORM.— RAZOR FISHES. I37 

But Dr. McLean and his little cliarge were 
halfway to the cottage, she telling how troubled 
she felt for the dear people in ships out on 
that troughy sea, while he gently soothed her 
burdened little heart, leading her to rest her 
care on him who "ruleth the raging of the sea." 
He repeated the grand words of the Psalmist, 
whose inspiration touched all subjects and all 
ages: 

" They that go down to the sea in ships, 
That do business in great waters ; 
These see the works of the Lord, 
And his wonders in the deep. 

He maketh the storm a calm, 

So that the waves thereof are still." 

They were none too soon in seeking shel- 
ter ; just as they gained the veranda the van- 
guard of the storm struck them. Even Tom 
was constrained to leave his contemplation of 
^* eagle wings " and make good use of a pair of 
stout legs. The shadows were gone from Un- 
dine's eyes, and they were full of merriment as 
she watched Tom dashing through the storm, 
sending back defiant peals of laughter to the 
gusts of wind and billows of rain that followed 
him. 

The trio stood at the Avindow watching- the 



138 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

waves and the rain " clap their hands together/' 
as Tom expressed it. 

"I should think such hammering waves 
might break all the shells in the ocean/' said 
Undine, whose heart ever turned to her treas- 
ures. 

" Many of them will be broken," answered 
the doctor, " but not unfrequently some of the 
most fi^agile are lifted upon the crest of a wave 
and laid upon tlie sand, far out of danger; 
some are buried in the sand. You know how 
the limpets and abalones cling ; more are down 
in tke region of calms below the storm, while 
others are moored by stout cables of their own 
spinning." 

At mention of shells buried in the sand, 
Tom pulled a razor shell from his pocket, say- 
ing : " When I was wading in the shallows 
this morning a Jet of water struck my foot. I 
dug this fellow out of the sand." 

" I once saw men searching for razor fishes 
in the Bay of Naples," said the doctor. "They 
were finding them with their feet, as you did 
this one ; but I venture you did not resort to 
their method of bringing them to the surface. 

"When they discover a Sole7i — another 
name for their razor fish — they bring it up be- 
tween their toes ; and as the shell has a razor- 




< 
^ 



A STOEM.— RAZOR FISHES. 139 

like edge, and the owner of it makes a fierce 
struggle for liberty, the poor fisherman often 
has his foot badly cut before the prize is 
secured. 

" Kazor fishes belong to the order SipJioni- 
da^ some members of which are dubbed ^wa- 
tering pots/ on account of their strong siphons, 
many inches in length. In fact, in the Glyci- 
meris generosa of our own coast the siphon 
attains to a full yard. 

" Their habit of spouting out Jets of w^ater 
when disturbed is one way by which they are 
discovered, and gives them the additional name 
of ' spoutfishes.' " 

As the doctor finished, Undine asked : 
" What did you mean by saying, ' some shells 
were moored by cables of the animal's own 
spinning ? ' " 

'' Oh, those are the byssus spinners ! " said 
the doctor, and going to a shelf he took sev- 
eral shells from it. First he displayed a pearly 
Anomiaj the undervalve of which was flat, with 
a hole near one extremity to allow of the pas- 
sage of the byssus tuft for attachment ; then 
he showed them a scallop with a notch through 
which the stout byssus fiber was passed ; then 
a mussel, saying : " The inmates of these shells 

knew how^ to spin a tuft of fibers which in 
11 



140 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

some were fine as silk, in others stiff and 
horny. These were attached by strong mus- 
cles to themselves, and thence to rock, reef, 
or wreck, as pleased the little spinner. 

^^ These threads are spun by the foot of the 
little animal, and are so stout as to withstand 
the shock of the incoming seas. When wish- 
ing temporary anchorage, or fearing the stress 
of waves, it has only to throw out its byssus 
cable and rest secure. Sometimes this little 
bark with its silken moorino^s is freig;hted with 
pearls," said he, pointing to a mussel ; " the 
pearls of these shells, however, are generally 
of an inferior order. 

'^The Pinna^ or fan mussel, is a byssus 
spinner, having valves two feet long ; and the 
beautiful silk of its byssus has been used in 
spinning rich and costly fabrics. 

^' We find among these not only the spin- 
ners of silk, but borers of wood and stone, and 
hence some of them have received the name 
' wood eaters ' or ' stone eaters.' 

" How these little creatures are able to bore 
into hard substances has long been a question 
of wonder and speculation. The serrated or 
filelike edges of some shells might seem to 
account for it in a measure ; the abrading foot 
with its strong muscles, sometimes assisted by 



A STOKM.— RAZOR FISHES. 141 

grains of sand whicli it rubs against the rock, 
might be sufficient ; the cilia of others are said 
to be used in the boring. But none of these 
seem sufficiently to account for incisions made 
in flinty rocks or hardest of shell-like sub- 
stances. Hence it has been suggested th^t the 
work may be sometimes slowly but surely ac- 
complished by the means of an acid secreted 
by the bivalve for this purpose. 

" Borers sometimes entirely bury themselves 
in rocky sepulchers of their own excavation. 

'^ In tombs of men whom the world honors 
lights are sometimes kept burning. Nature 
honors equally these little miners, to whom 
she has given lamps while living; and after 
their busy days are over, their work done, and 
no man knoweth their sepulchers, still the light 
of their little lamps may be seen, for these 
borers are luminous ; and it is said that the 
PTiolas at least retains its phosphorescence so 
long as a piece remains ; even if that piece be 
hard and dry it will again give out its light 
when moistened by the waves. 






OLIVES. 






All ! what pleasant visions haunt me, 

All the old romantic legends, 
All my dreams come back to me. 

Longfellow. 

Pages no better than blanks to common minds, to his 
are hierogiyphical of wisest secrets. — Wilson. 

144 



XVII. 
OLIVES. 

" Why has no lover of Nature discovered 
the ' cipher ' by which to read the hieroglyph- 
ics on these olives ? " said Miss Bremely, after 
expressing her admiration for those glossy and 
finely polished shells. 

" There is an exquisite pleasure in holding 
them in my hand and in hearing the rhythmic 
sound they make touching against each other. 
I have always been fond of them and always 
wished there might be such a thing as a clew 
to their pretty ' picture writing.' " 

'' Perhaps they are tablets of the Nereids, 
and report their calls, engagements, and con- 
quests," suggested the doctor. 

"Accept me as your oracle," he added, 
taking an Oliva scripta from her hand. '^I 
will be a mouth to it. Its long-locked secrets 
shall speak to your heart. 

" I affirm and declare this to be an ancient 
tablet from his Majesty Oceanus to her Eoyal 

145 



146 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

Highness Tethys, written in his fiery youth, 
and full of titles of endearment. Behold this 
one, oft repeated ! " he said, pointing to certain 
similar markings more delicately and regularly 
traced than work on Babylonian brick or 
Egyptian obelisk. 

" Its reading is this : ' O maiden by my 
heart cherished ! The sea halls are desolate. 
The jasper throne awaits thee. O maiden by 
my heart cherished ! The singing nymphs 
can not charm me. Stay thy sliding chariot. 
Listen and draw near. O maiden by my heart 
cherished ! Speaks not my heart to thee ? ' 
And here," he said, " is inscribed the name 
with all its titles and the ancient seal of the 
great Oceanus." 

While assuming to read the olive tablet the 
doctor's eyes were really reading this later 
maiden's face, and its blushes pleased him. 

But she lightly answered : 

" I read another story in this delicate cunei- 
form. It is an ocean rune full of mystery and 
tells how the waves learned their motion ; how 
the moon draws the crystal tides ; why the sea 
moans ; and this one has a sea song engraven 
on it ; and, presto ! " she exclaimed, taking 
from the shelf an elegant harp shell {Harpa 
ventricosd)j " here is the sea nymph's harp to 



OLIVES. 147 

furnisli the accompaniment. But I liear my 
own little Sea-Maiden calling me." 

And Miss Bremely was gone, 

Oliva scripta, which the doctor had selected 
as best illustrating his idea of an ancient tablet 
or epistle from the royal Oceanus to his well- 
beloved Queen Tethys^ was delicate enough to 
have been indeed a gift from a sea king to the 
most lovely nymph either of the ocean or the 
earth. This shell was over an inch in length, 
shining as if polished by the jewel makers of 
the deep. Its delicate fawn-colored surface, 
suffused with soft shadings of brown, was writ- 
ten over in fine zigzag lines of a pale chestnut 
tint, bearing also in stronger drawn hiero- 
glyphic figures what seemed as if they might 
be words or sentences to be emphasized ; and 
these oft repeated were the markings which 
the doctor had ingeniously rendered into ex- 
pressions of endearment, while Just above the 
aperture of the shell, which was a mingling of 
the blue tint of the waves and the soft white- 
ness of pearls, a strongly marked insciiption he 
affirmed to be the royal signature and seal. 

The name given . this Olive — scnpta — 
showed that others before had recognized in 
its curious and delicate markings a resemblance 
to writing. 



148 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

Soft tints, a shining and porcellaneous sur- 
face, and handsome markings are some of the 
characteristics of the shells of the family Olivi- 
dse. The animals of this family are exclusive- 
ly tropical, and upon sandy flats of warm seas 
they revel, moving about with considerable 
quickness, burrowing under the wet sand when 
the tides are low, and leaving no trace of their 
hiding places. 

The number of both fossil and living spe- 
cies is large, and it is impossible to tell all the 
shades of coloring and the various patterns of 
banding and nebulous painting to be found 
upon them. 

A curious characteristic of this group of 
mollusks is its dual picturing. Underlying 
the external porcellaneous and decorated sur- 
face of the shell is another layer decorated 
with an entirely different pattern, the two lay- 
ers making their different growths at the same 
time. This under layer is, however, never ex- 
posed except by the outer one becoming worn 
off or when acids are used in removing it. 

The external colorings and markings of 
these shells have also been obliterated by the 
application of heat. So the Pacific islanders, 
who delight in these shells for ornamenting 
their bracelets and belts, but prefer them pure 



OLIVES. 149 

white, liave resorted to this trick in their ex- 
tremely crude laboratories. 

Another interesting peculiarity has been 
discovered in the olives in common with some 
other animals having similar shells, that is, the 
ability the little creature has of dissolving 
away the earlier formed volutions of the shell, 
and so according to its needs enlarging its place 
of habitation. 

The islanders of the Indian Ocean fish the 
Olividse extensively, using a number of lines 
baited with pieces of fish. They allow these 
lines thus baited to sink to the sandy shallows, 
the habitat of the olives. Not a very long 
time is required for the little animals to dis- 
cover the feast thus spread for their use, and 
they gather upon the pieces of fish in great 
nuiAbers, and are drawn up to be_spld in the 
markets. 

The Olivella, or little olive, is distinguished 
from the typical olive by a smaller shell, more 
extended spire, and the presence of a thin and 
horny operculum. It is also said that the olive 
has eyes while the Olivella has none. 

The Indians of the Pacific coast attached a 
mercenary value to one variety of these small 
shells — 0. hiplicata — which they called ^^col- 
coi;' 



150 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

There is another species which excels as a 
swimmer. Expanding quickly the lobes of its 
foot, it strikes the water suddenly with these 
and darts swiftly away in sportive fashion 
through the waves, or speeds at will from one 
sandy shoal to another. 

Belonging to a subfamily of the Olividse 
we find the harp shell, to which Miss Bremely 
referred as fitting to furnish the accompani- 
ments to sea songs, which she fancied to be en- 
graven upon the pretty olives. These harp 
shells are in truth beautiful enough to be sug- 
gestive of conceptions of harmony, of music, 
and of delight to sea nymphs and " ocean 
swells." The shells are prominently ribbed, and 
decorated with well-defined dark lines of inter- 
costal painting. Most of them are highly col- 
ored, banded, and festooned in the richest man- 
ner. Har])a ventricosa and Harpa articularis 
are among the most beautiful. 

Unlike some other beauties the Harpinss 
all appear to delight in their large feet. So 
large are they in fact that their possessors are 
unable to accommodate them to their shells ; 
so after the fashion of Cinderella's wicked sis- 
ters, who " would not need to walk when they 
were queens," they are said to detach a portion 
of the foot in emergencies. 



OLIVES. 151 

As if the spirit of beauty had taken pos- 
session of the Harpince and permeated them 
through and through^ we find the animals them- 
selveSj as well as their shells, bright with bands 
and blotches of color. 

There is a resemblance between some of 
the olives and the cone shells, as shown in our 
illustration ; yet the differences in the living 
animals, as well as in the shells themselves, 
place them in distinct families. The Olividw 
are destitute of an epidermis, which is one dif- 
ference, as this characterizes the members of 
the Conidce. Other distinctions mark them, 
yet each have the beautiful shining and pic- 
tured surfaces, as also has the Phasianella^ 
the pretty pheasant shell of our engraving. 



GROWTH OF SHELLS. 



Nature is man's best teacher. She unfolds 

Her treasures to his search, unseals his eyes, 

Illumes his mind, and purifies his heart ; 

An influence breathes from all the sights and sounds 

Of her existence ; she is Wisdom's self. 

Street. 

But the cunning Little People, 
The Puck-Wudjies knew the secret. 

Longfellow. 
154 



XVIII. 
GROWTH OF SHELLS. 

" Heee's a pretty palace with a good stout 
front door/' announced Tom, displaying a 
pearly Trochiis. 

" The name of that ^ front door/ '' said his 
cousin, " is the operculum. Many shells are fur- 
nished with opercula, but not all are so strong 
and horny as this. You see it is even thicker 
than the walls of the shell itself. It is devel- 
oped upon a part of the foot of the animal and 
moved by strong muscles, which enable the 
little householder to shut his door quickly at 
the approach of an enemy. 

" In the baby Troclius this operculum can 
be discerned, and grows with the growth of the 
animal and the other shell coverino;." 

^'I don't see how shells grow, anyway!" 
exclaimed Tom. 

'^ Very likely you don't," said Miss Breme- 
ly. "Nature does not make a parade of her 
fine work, but if we care enough about her and 

12 155 



156 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

lier mysteries to seek diligently for tliem she 
rewards us generously. You have learned that 
some shells secrete layers of nacre^ Avith which 
many of our most beautiful ones are lined and 
which composes a great part of others. You 
remember, too, how injuries inflicted by borers 
are repaired. These facts open our eyes to a 
part of the mystery. Shells were once a por- 
tion of the mantle or delicate films which were 
separated from it. These gradually harden, 
becoming united to tissues previously thrown 
oif by the mantle. So layer is Joined to layer 
in forming shells so delicate a wave may break 
them or solid like these Trochi. 

^^ Ridges, verices, and spines indicate some 
time has elapsed between the deposition of the 
layers. 

" If shells are broken we can sometimes see 
the process of shell growth, if patient enough 
to watch the work and to wait the completion 
of the delicate repairing. First a moist exuda- 
tion — a secretion from the injured part of the 
little animal — covers the spot. Gradually this 
exudation becomes filmy upon exposure to the 
air, and, as the process continues, grows calcare- 
ous or horny according to the character of the 
shell undergoing repairs. 

" If the injury is sustained upon the w^alls 



GROWTH OF SHELIiS, 157 

of a ctamber which the animal has outgrown 
and vacated, he does not again enter the ' halls 
of the past,' but deliberately shuts out the past 
and its injuries alike, by building a shelly wall 
or partition entirely across that part of the 
shell. 

" The different depositions or layers are 
sometimes shown when the edges of a shell be- 
come broken. They are also seen in the cameo 
shells, in which the laminations are of different 
colors. You will see what I mean by this,'' 
she said, unfastening from her collar a brooch 
of shell cameo. Holding it to the light she 
displayed the delicate translucence of the 
orange ground over which figures w^ere carved 
from the next layer in white relief. " This 
shows the strata of the shell," she said, " and 
also how the colors have been turned to account 
in carving the Jewel. The shell from which this 
was cut was known as Cassis cornuta ; its habi- 
tat was the Indian Ocean. 

^' All cameos are not colored like this. Some 
are a pale salmon on an orange ground. Such 
are cut from the Cassis rufa. Others, from C. 
Madagascariensis and C tuberosa^ have white 
figures on dark claret-colored ground. Some 
are cut from the Stromhus gigas, which is the 
pinky queen's couch of the West Indies. These 



158 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

have raised figures of yellow on a pink 
ground. 

^^ As has been seen, the shells used for these 
Jewels and called cameo shells are generally 
the large Oassides. The carving of the cameos 
is a fine art, carried to an exquisite perfection 
by the Roman cameo cutters." 

'' What gives the different colors to shells \ " 
asked Tom. 

'' That is another of the mysteries in which 
Nature has been chary of her confidences/' an- 
swered Miss Bremely. ^^It seems to be in 
some way the result of a secreting work done 
by the border of the mantle. Light also is 
their painter. We observe that shells near the 
shore are richer and brighter in coloring than 
those which are shut out from the sunlight in 
deep ocean beds. Tropic seas yield us the 
most brilliantly colored shells, as tropic groves 
produce birds of gayest plumage. 

'' George W. Tryon tells us in his Conchol- 
ogy that ^ bivalves which habitually lie upon 
one side have the upper valve colored and 
pictured, while the under valve is white and 
colorless.' He also quotes authorities who 
seem to have discovered in certain cases an 
adaptation in the color of shells to the color of 
objects upon which they rest. 



GROWTH OF SHELLS. 159 

" After all that has been said the mystery 
remains* The delicate tracery upon the olives, 
the mottled surfaces of the Cyprcea^ are myste- 
ries stillj and even this remains unaccounted 
for/' she added, taking a Nerita from the sheK. 
^^ This tooth, like a point of ruby upon the col- 
umella, is a pretty secret which we can not ex- 
plain. This little jeweled point has given the 
name of ^ bleeding tooth ' to the shell. We 
can not resist the wish that we might be near 
enough to Mother Nature's heart to be taken 
into her counsels* We would like to know 
how and why she gave the little Nerita this 
single red Jewel. There are many things we 
would like to know*" 



"THINGS UNRECK'D OF." 



G-reat and gorgeous as is the display of Divine power 
and wisdom in the things that are seen of all, it may 
safely be affirmed that a far more extensive prospect of 
these glories lay unheeded and unknown till the optician's 
art revealed it. Like the work of some mighty genius of 
Oriental fable, the brazen tube is the key that unlocks a 
world of wonder and beauty before invisible, which one 
who has once gazed upon it can never forget, and never 
cease to admire.— Philip Henry Gosse. 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 

Shakespeare. 
162 



XIX. 
"THINGS UNRECK'D OF." 

^^You have told us of little specks called 
eyes in some of our moUusca, but, Cousin Ellen, 
can these little animals really see and hear and 
do they ever speak to each other ? " asked 
Undine. 

'' Some of them at least have organs of 
sight," answered Miss Bremely, " and eyes 
which have been considered rudimentary may 
simply be so because our own are not delicate 
enough to study them sufficiently. 

"The eyes of the common snail are upon 
long stalks which are raised or lowered, turned 
this w^ay and that as the animal travels, giving 
it quite the air of an interested observer. 
These eyes are very exposed upon their raised 
tentacles, and Nature has provided a very curi- 
ous device for keeping them from injury — 
which is only another way of saying that the 
kind Creator has a care for even the eyes of a 
little snail. The point of these lono- stalks 

163 



164 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

upon which the eyes are located can be drawn 
down through the tubes, as the finger of a 
glove is drawn in. The tubes are so trans- 
parent one is able to see the black eye as it 
descends through the shortening tube to the 
little case under the skin of the head where it 
is safe. 

" These little tentacles or eye stalks are so 
sensitive of danger that the least impression is 
telegraphed through the nervous organism of 
the animal, and in an instant the eyes are out 
of sight, and if danger still seems imminent, the 
cautious little creature glides quickly into his 
fortress. 

" As proof of the clear vision of snails it is 
affirmed that they will go around obstacles in 
their path, and they appear to be attracted by 
bright colours. 

" Among bivalves tiny specks have been 
detected near the borders of the mantle, some 
shining like jewels, others too small to be per- 
ceived except by a most careful scrutiny with 
a strong lens. These are supposed with good 
reason to be eyes. It has been observed that 
a sea urchin mil sometimes turn its spines as 
if for self-defense in the direction in which a 
hand approaches to capture it. 

" The razor fish, even when buried in the 



'^THINGS UNRECK'D OF." 165 

sand with only the siphonal orifices exposed to 
the light, perceives the slightest shadow falling 
upon the water. This has led to closer study 
of the siphonal margins where what seem tiny 
eye specks have been detected. 

" We are told that some of our shellfishes 
are supplied with auditorial nerves, while an 
external ear is credited to some. Yet their 
whole external surface is so extremely sensitive, 
aside from the especially sensitive tentacula, 
that they perceive the approach of any object 
by vibration ; hence naturalists tell us we need 
not expect a very strongly developed sense of 
*sound. 

"Your last question I can best answer by 
reading you what some wise students have 
written concerning these interesting little crea- 
tures. ' If you ask what can be the use of ears 
to a class of animals which are invariably dumb, 
I answer though this is true with respect to 
the great majority, yet it may be only that our 
senses are too dull to perceive the delicate 
sounds which they utter, and which may be 
sufficiently audible to their more sensitive or- 
gans ; and, besides, some mollusca can certainly 
emit sounds audible to us. Two very elegant 
species of sea-slug — viz., J^oUs punctata and 
Tritonia arhorescens (now called Dendronotus 



166 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

arborescens) — certainly produce audible sounds. 
Prof. Grant, who first observed the interesting 
fact in some specimens of the latter which 
he was keeping in an aquarium, says of the 
sounds, that they resemble very much the 
click of a steel wire on the side of the jar, one 
stroke only given at a time and repeated at in- 
tervals of a minute or two. , . . The sound is 
longest and oftenest repeated when the Tri- 
toniae are lively and move about, and is not 
heard when they are cold and without any 
motion. . , . The sound when in a glass vessel 
is mellow and distinct , . . and obviously pro- 
ceeds from the mouth of the animal ; at the 
instant of stroke we observe the lips suddenly 
separate as if to allow the water to rush into a 
small vacuum formed within.' 

'' The following instance of affection among 
snails has been recorded by a naturalist who 
observed it: ^ A pair of Helix pomatia^ or Ro- 
man snails, were put in a garden for safe keep- 
ing. One of them escaped, but, finding its 
companion did not follow, it returned in quest 
of its fellow-prisoner.' " 



TROUBLE. 



Life is full of ends, but every end is a new beginning*, 
and we are constantly coming to the point where we may 
close one chapter, but we can always turn and open a new 
and better and diviner chapter. — Phillips Brooks. 

168 



XX. 
TEOUBLE. 

" Cousiisr Elleist has a new ring," confided 
Undine to Tom soon after. 

'^ That so ? " responded Tom, in an uninter- 
ested voice. 

" It's lovely/' continued Undine ; '^ a dear 
little diamond and some pearls." 

^^ Don't see what she wants of any more 
rings ! " ventured Tom, with more esprit. '' She's 
more rings now than she can wear. I'd a 
thought she'd rather have a double-lens micro- 
scope, or an alligator — I would ! " 

Without appearing to notice Tom's prefer- 
ence. Undine gently touched the heart of the 
matter, and Tom's heart as well, by her next 
announcement : '' I guess Dr. McLean gave it 
to her." 

Tom's face grew troubled ; he was silent a 
moment and then asked, ^^ Undine, you don't 
s'pose Dr. McLean cares anything about Cousin 
Ellen, do you ? " 

1G9 



170 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 

" I don't see how lie can help it, Tom ; she's 
so lovely. Dr. McLean is nice, too," continued 
Undine; ^^the nicest man I ever saw — 'cept 
papa," she added slowly. 

"That's so," exclaimed Tom, "if he is a 
minister ! " 

"But, Tom, we can't spare Cousin Ellen," 
continued Undine, with dimming eyes. 

" Course we can't ! " agreed Tom. " Nor 
we can't spare the doctor either ! " Evidently 
the children's problem was deepening. 

At last Undine said with a sigh of mingled 
trouble and relief, " I'll talk with papa about 
it when he comes ; he always helps us." And 
Tom, with hands deep in his pockets, went out 
whistling Three Blind Mice. 

That evening with her head upon her 
father's broad shoulder. Undine sobbed out her 
story of the beautiful ring and the anxieties 
assailing her loving little heart. 

Mr. Bremely laid his bearded face against 
her cheek and for several minutes w^as silent. 
His heart w^as far away with his own sweet, 
sad past. A tear upon his hand recalled him 
to the child to whom he must not only give 
strength and protection, but motherly comfort 
as well. Patting her cheek and smiling he 
agreed with her that, "they could not spare 



TROUBLE. 171 

Cousin Ellen nor Dr. McLean — nor anybody/' 
and promised lie would look into the matter. 

Undine's confidence in her father was only 
equaled by her love, and soon she was laugh- 
ing gleefully while she searched his pockets 
for the strange money he told her he had 
brought her. 

One pocket she found filled with cowries, 
yellow and shining. ^^ Money cowries," her 
father told her they were called, because of 
their commercial value in some parts of Asia 
and Africa, to whick places many tons weight 
have been carried annually by traders. " Orange 
cowries," said her father, " are the crown jewels 
of the Friendly Islanders, and are worn as 
marks of chieftainship. But go further. Un- 
dine ; you will find other Cyprwa that will 
please your fancy." And truly the elegant 
" porcelain shells " she found in another pocket, 
with their exquisite enamel and beautiful mot- 
tling, called forth expressions of the greatest 
delight. Among the richly colored was a 
shell of purest white, all the fairer for its lone- 
ness. It was the Ovtikcm ovum, or " poached 
egg," as it is often called. Another very curi- 
ous to her was the Ovulmn volva, or " weavers' 
shuttle," as it is named, because of the prolon- 
gations of both ends of the shell. 

13 



172 THE nALL OF SHELLS. 

From another pocket she brought out a 
handful of tiny points. '^ What are these ? " 
she asked. ^^Are they ivory tusks of fairy 
elephants, or horns of baby unicorns ? " And 
the rippling sound they made as they passed 
through her fingers pleased her ears as perhaps 
the " jiiT^gle " of these Dentalian " guineas " 
please the ear of the Indian money getter. The 
value of Dentalia^ or ^^ toothshells/' she learned, 
was determined by the length of the shells. 

Later that evening, when Undine and Tom 
had sailed away to the universe of dreams, Dr. 
McLean with Miss Bremely paused before the 
open door of the library. Mr. Bremely sat 
within, a book was open before him, but he 
could not read. His heart was stirred with a 
mighty past. An angel had come down that 
evening and troubled its waters. 

The flush upon Miss Bremely 's cheeks was 
again like the pink tint of shells, and dimples 
played among her blushes, while Dr. McLean 
looked as happy as a king ; yet enigmatical as 
it seemed, they assured Mr. Bremely they came 
because they were in sore trouble. The doc- 
tor had learned, like Undine, that he could not 
spare Miss Bremely ; and she that she could 
not spare Dr. Lean ; and both, like the chil- 
dren, that they " could not spare anybody." 



TROUBLE. 173 

The consultation was long, but it was final- 
ly decided that Dr. McLean should leave his 
boarding house, and that the cottage among 
the acacia trees should for a time at least be- 
come the manse. 

Mr. Bremely especially urged this, since 
business called him soon to South America for 
an absence of months. 

Twice for the Bremelys, had the acacia 
trees lit their pale tapers of bloom. Ere they 
faded the second time, there was a wedding in 
the cottage and the acacia trees waved like 
palms with glory-lighted tops. 

Trouble had passed. Dr. and Mrs. McLean 
walked in the heavenly peace of a true 
marriage. 

Undine was serenely happy. Tom was 
Jubilant. Mr. Bremely, with sad, glad eyes, 
blessed those whose love in turn was his 
blessing. 

Among the gifts upon the occasion were 
two, for which the doctor was responsible, 
marked for the children : Undine found her 
package to contain the long-desired microscope, 
while Tom rejoiced over the coveted young 
alligator. 



INDEX 



Abalona, 64. 
Acelephse, 53. 
Algge, Chap. IX. 
Ammonite, 86. . 
Anomia, 139. 
Argonauta Are:o, 83. 
Argonaut, Chap. X. 
Asteria, 111. 

Avicula margaritifera, 61. 
Awabi, 65. 

Barnacles, Chap. XIV. 

Borer, 20, 140, 141. 

Byssus spinners, Chap. XVI. 

Cassides, 165. 
Cassis cornuta, 157. 
Cassis rufa, 157. 
Cassis madagascariensis, 157. 
Cassis tuberosa, 157. 
Cerripeda, 118. 
Chitonidse, 95. 
Chiton Katherina, 95. 
Chlorospermeae, 75. 
Comatula rosacea. 111. 
Conid.ne, 151. 

Corallium rubrum, 125, 129. 
Cornua Ammonis, 87. 
Cowries, 171. 
Crepidula, 51. 
Crinoidea), 111, 114. 
Cypraea, 171. 



175 



Dendronotus arborescens, 165. 
Dentalia, 172. 

Echinoidea, 114. 
Eehinodermata, Chap. XIII. 
Echinus, Chap. XIII. 

Feathery star, 111. 
Fulgur canaliculatus, 18. 
Fulgur carica, 18. 

Glycimeris generosa, 139. 
Gorgonidae, 124. 
Gorgon, Chap. XV. 

Haliotis, 8, Chap. XVIII. 
Haliotidae, 64. 
Harpa articularis, 150. 
Harpa ventricosa, 146. 
Helix pomatia, 166. 
Hermit crab. Chap. XV. 
Holothurian, 112, 113. 
Holothurida% 114. 
Ilydroids, 45, oij^ 57. 

lanthina fragilis, 37, 38. 

Limpet, 5, 16, 17, ijQ. 

Mactra solidissima, 94. 
Malleus vulgaris, 64. 
Mandrapora t'ormosa, 130. 



176 



THE HALL OF SHELLS. 



Medusge, 47, 57, Chap. Yll. 
Melanospermese, 75. 
Mermaid's cradle, 93, 97. 
Mermaid's lace, 79. 
Microscopic shells. Chap. IV, 
Murex brandis, 28. 
Murex palma-rosa, 29. 
Murex princeps, 30. 
Murex radix, 29. 
Murex tinuispina, 29. 
Murex tribulus, 29. 
Murex trunculus, 28. 
Murexes, Chap. HI, 27. 

iVautilus, 84, 86, Chap. XL 

Oliva biplicata, 149. 
Oliva scripta, Chap. XV HI. 
Olivella, 146. 
Olives, Chap. XVIII. 
Operculum, 154. 
Ovulum ovum, 171. 
Ovulum volva, 171. 
Oyster, 8, Chap. VIII. 

Patella, Chap. II. 

Patella vulgatus, 22. 

Pearls, Chap. VIII. 

Pecten, Chap. II, 13, 14, 15. 

Pecten Jacobaeus, 22. 

Phalos, 141. 

Phasianella, 151. 

Physalia, 54. 

Pinna, 140. 

Pinna noblis, 64. 

Portuguese man-of-war. Chap. VII. 

PurpuraSjChap. HI. 



Eazor fishes, 22, Chap. XVI, 164. 
Ehodospermeae, 75. 

Salpse, 45. 

Sand dollar, Chap. XIII. 

Sapphirina ovatolanceolata, 45. 

Sargasso Sea, 76. 

Sargassum bacciferum, 76. 

Scalaria, 45. 

Scallop, Chap. II, 13, 14, 15. 

Scheveningen sliells. Chap. XII. 

Sea fan, Chap. XV. 

Sea slugs, 165. 

Sea snails, 22. 

Sea urchin. Chap. XIII. 

Serpula, 22. 

Siphonida, 139. 

Solaster popposus, 111. 

Solen, 138. 

Snails, 163, 164. 

Starfish, 8, Chap. XIII. 

Strombus gigas, 157. 

Tradacna gigas, 95. 
Triton tritonis, 40. 
Triton variegatus, 40. 
Tritonia, 39. 

Tritonia arborescens, 165. 
Tritoniae, 166. 
Trochus, 155. 
Tubipora musica, 130. 

Unio Hyria, 63. 

Venus Californiensis, 94. 
Venus mercenaria, 94. 

Worm cases, 45. 



THE END 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 

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Edited by W. T. HARRIS, A. M., LL D.» 

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'* Mr. F. Schuyler Mathews's careful description and giaceful drawings of our 
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YOUNG HEROES OF OUR NAVY. 
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T ITTLE JAR VIS, The story of the heroic mid- 

■^-^ shipman of the frigate ''Constellation." By Molly Elliot 

Seawell. With 6 full-page Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $i.00c 

** Not since Dr. Edward Everett Hale's classic, *The Man without a Country,' has 
there been published a more stirring lesson in patriotism. " — Boston Beacon. 

** It is what a boy would call ' a real boj^'s ' book." — Charleston News and Courier. 



New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 



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